Missing Leo
by myscout14
Summary: Leo was captured two months ago during an ambush, and Raph now has to pick up the pieces and take care of his family while also trying to find his older brother.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"Alright guys, let's head out," Leo had whispered as he, Donnie, and Mikey jumped over the railing into the Kraang base. For some reason I hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something was wrong that night, and I still don't understand why. I wish I had listened to that feeling in my gut that was something was going wrong; I wish I had listened to the nagging voice telling me take my brothers and head out, but wishing will get me no where. If I could wish for one thing though, it would be for my brother Leo to be sitting beside me safe and sound right now. If he was, then I could stop living in this nightmare and could stop reliving that night every time I shut my eyes.


	2. Chapter 1

Two Months Ago  
"Hey guys, come over here!" exclaimed Donnie as he stood bent over a computer. His long gawky arms were moving quickly in every direction as he typed in series after series of codes. Leo, as usual, was the first over there. He was the only one who actually had a chance of following the jibber-jabber that came out of Donnie's mouth whenever he explained things to us.  
I headed over next, and after that Mikey skateboarded over to the table, nearly taking out Leo who hit him and shot him a look clearly saying "shut up and sit down". I stifled a laugh, Leo looked over his shoulder at me and smirked, he always knew what I was thinking.  
"What's up Donnie?" asked Leo, all business.  
"The Kraang are moving a shipment of mutagen from their base in Manhattan to the outpost we found in China Town tonight. I intercepted the message with the communications ball we captured using a cipher. It was quite simple really all I did was..." Donatello began speaking in a language that could have been Greek for all I know. I honestly have no idea what he said.  
"Focus, Donnie!" I growled, bringing him back to Earth.  
"Oh, right. Well anyways, I'm thinking that we can intercept them here-" he said, pointing to a map of China town he had brought up," it would be perfect. It should be a quick in and out, painless, easy, and the amount of mutagen we could score would be incredible!"  
" You know what would really be incredible? Pizza. Let's get some pizza," whined Mikey. All three of us turned and glared at him.  
"Or not. You know what, I'm not actually that hungry, hehehehe..."  
"Isn't it a bit suspicious that the Kraang are moving this much mutagen to such a low security area? It makes no sense. Why would they do that?" asked Leo frowning.  
"I'm not sure, maybe it's a part of that master plan we've heard them talking about," pointed out Donnie.  
"Who cares? As long as we get the mutagen, nothing else matters," I growled.  
"Maybe...," said Leo, "okay. It seems pretty routine, let's do it."


	3. Chapter 2

"Alright guys, let's move out," called Leo as we prepared to leave the Lair. None of us even bothered saying goodbye to Splinter, he wouldn't even notice we were gone. We ran out into the sewers, and jumped through a man hole cover, flipped onto a balcony, jumped onto an awning, and finally landed on the roof of an apartment building.  
I love the feeling of freedom that comes with running across the roof tops of my city; it feels like I'm flying. I know all my brothers feel the same, but for me it's special. It's where I come to cool down, it's where I fought my first battle, and it's where I have played and goofed off with my brothers. I have spent so much time on these rooftops, they're my second home, but that night they betrayed me.  
We were flying jumping rooftop to rooftop, swinging off cables, and generally having a good time when we finally began to draw close to the Kraang facility. Leo held a finger to his lips and crouched down. Quietly we went into stealth mode and crept cautiously across the roof of a restaurant across the street from the facility. Kraang droids were unloading large boxes of what could only be mutagen from a large transport truck and bringing into their warehouse. I grinned, this was going to be a piece of cake! Here they were loading boxes out in the open with minimal security, they were practically handing the shipment to us. I glanced over at Leo, waiting for the signal to go grab the stuff, but he wouldn't give it.  
"Leo. man. what's your problem? C'mon, let's go get the mutagen, it'll be easy," I whined. He looked at me, and I saw the confusion and caution in his eyes.  
"Exactly, Raph, it _will _be easy. Too easy. I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong here," he said, glancing back at the Kraang.  
"Uh, guys? I hate to break it to you, but I think Leo might have been right..." Donnie exclaimed worriedly.  
Whipping around, I found myself surrounded by Kraang droids. I swore, why hadn't I noticed it was a trap? Why did I always contradict Leo? There was no time to dwell on those thoughts though, because immediately the droids opened fire. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leo hacking away at the droids, his katana slicing through them like they were made of butter. I stabbed a droid with my sai and continued slashing, punching, and dismembering my way through the throng. I heard a shout and turned to find Donnie fending off a bot with his bo staff, if he hadn't been there I would have been dead.  
"Thanks," I chuffed as I continued through the mess. Mikey was backed against the wall of the neighboring building surrounded by the Kraang. I ran over and hacked my way through to him. Standing side by side, we made it through the remaining Kraang. Finally, there were only a few left, and they went down easily. Everyone seemed mostly unharmed, just a few minor cuts and some bruises. Just as we turned to leave the rooftop and head back to the lair, another wave appeared out of no where. Leo's eyes went wide and he glanced at me desperately.  
"Raph, take Donnie and Mike. Get back to the Lair, I'll catch up with you," he said crossing his katana in front of him.  
"No, Leo! You can't face them by yourself!"  
"Raph, there are too many. I can hold them off long enough for you guys to get a head start and get to the sewers. I'll follow, but we can't get there if all of these guys are following us,"  
This is when I made the biggest mistake of my miserable life. I nodded.  
"Ok, Leo. See you back at the Lair."  
I turned, grabbed Donnie and Mikey, and ran towards the nearest man hole cover. We dodged shots and fought off Kraang most of the way to the sewers, but we made it. I slid the cover off and watched Mikey and Donnie go down. I was crouching next to the cover preparing to go into the sewers when I saw Leo sprinting towards me. There was panic in his blue eyes, and blood streamed off him. There was a horrible gaping hole in his plastron from where he had been shot by a Kraang.  
"Raph! Get inside! Run!" he screamed. The Kraang were on his tail, and shots were flying everywhere. Leo ran up to me, shoved me down the hole and was begining to follow when suddenly a hand reached down and pulled him out of the sewers with inhuman strength.  
"LEO!" I yelled, reaching out to grab him.  
"I'm sorry, Raph. Tell them I love them," Leo cried as he was dragged out of the hole. As another hand reached down to grab me, it was lopped off by a familiar katana.  
"You will not hurt my brother!" he hissed. He looked at me one last time with those blue eyes, the fire in them was just as strong as ever, but there was something else there as well, something that scared me. Leo looked scared; Leo never let us see him scared. We made eye contact for an instant and then he shoved the cover over the hole.  
"LEO!" I screamed, beating against the cover, but something heavy was on top of it, and I was too tired and weak to move it again. The sounds of fighting echoed down from the street above, but the thing that scared me most was when the fighting stopped and there was silence.


	4. Chapter 3

Numbly I made way down the sewers to meet Donnie and Mikey, my brain was unable to process what had just happened. Leo was gone, taken by the Kraang and it was all my fault. I reached Donnie and Mikey, grabbed both their hands and tugged them along behind me as we made our way back to the lair. I didn't want to ever let go of them, I had to protect them.  
"Raph? What's going on?" asked Donnie. I didn't answer. Both he and Mikey tried to get an answer out of me a few more times, but gave up when they realized I wasn't going to tell them anything. We were almost to the lair when something occurred to Mikey.  
"Raph, where's Leo?" he asked innocently. This was the question I had been dreading. Tears sprang to my eyes and I held back a sob, I had to stay strong for them. I didn't answer, I didn't trust my voice.  
Mikey turned away from me angrily thinking that I was giving him the silent treatment, but Donnie studied my face as we walked, and I knew that my own emotions were betraying me as I tried to keep it together. Donnie was beginning to look extremely alarmed by the time we made it back to the lair. The moment we entered, he ran into his lab. I sent Mikey to go watch a show, reassuring him that Leo was just out fighting the Kraang droids, he'd be back in any second. My lie was so unconvincing that even Mikey looked at me weirdly.  
Dragging my feet, I slowly made my way to the dojo where Splinter sat meditating. His eyes opened with their normal calm as he woke from his meditation, but they grew wide in alarm when he realized I was standing in front of him instead of Leo.  
"My son, not that I am not pleased to see you, but where is your brother? I sense something is wrong," he asked worriedly.  
I gulped. Finally, voice trembling, I let out the words I had tried so hard to block from my mind, "Master Splinter, Leo is gone."  
Master Splinter looked up at me in shock, fear and grief filling the eyes that had already seen the loss of so much. I heard a shriek behind me, and turned to see that Mikey had been listening in on our conversation. Ordinarily I would have been mad, but now I was just ashamed at how careless I had been. I should have noticed he was there.  
Mikey looked like he was about to be sick as he choked out, "Say it's not so, Raph! You told me he was going to be back soon!"  
Master Splinter sighed, hiding his sadness behind a facade of stoicism so that he could be strong for Mikey. "Go fetch your brother, Michelangelo, he needs to know what happened. We all do," intoned Master Splinter, looking at me questioningly.  
Mikey sprang up and was back with a confused Donnie in a matter of seconds. Donnie was furiously typing into his T-Shell. He looked up at all of us. "I can't find Leo's signal! He turned his phone off, he never turns his phone off! He made the rule that we can't turn our phones off!" Donnie yelled hysterically.  
Master Splinter raised a hand, silencing Donnie. "My son, please let Raphael explain what happened,"  
I couldn't stop the tears now, as annoying as it was. Mikey, Donnie, and Sensei all looked at me in horror as I told what had happened after I had shoved Mikey and Donnie down the sewer. After I finished telling them my tale, Mikey looked up at me and my heart broke when I saw the loss of innocence in his eyes. He had lost his oldest brother, his hero, and it was all my fault. Donnie was sitting there, his hands cradling his T-phone like it was a lifeline. His eyes had glazed over, and I could see his thoughts swirling around in his head running through possible scenarios where our brother lived. Sensei stood up and began to pace, and after a few minutes he stopped and looked at us, his remaining sons. He held out his arms and wrapped us in a comforting embrace while tears ran down his cheeks. He had lost his only daughter to the Shredder, and now a new enemy had taken his eldest son.  
Slowly we broke apart and went our seperate ways trying to cope. I heard Mikey walk into Leo's room, and Donnie slammed the door to his lab. My grief was slowly turning to rage, and I returned to the dojo to punch the stuffing out of a bag when I heard noises from Sensei's room. Against my better judgement, I peeked through the crack in the door and found myself looking upon my sensei talking to a ghostly figure. I held back a gasp as I realized that the spirit of my brother was standing with my Sensei.


	5. Chapter 4

I sucked a breath in quickly, rage boiling in me. Why was Leo talking to _Sensei? _I was the one who had watched as he was taken! He should be talking to me! Just as quickly as my anger had come, it was replaced by an overwhelming feeling of guilt. Maybe Leo was talking to Sensei because he knew that I had let him go. It was my fault. I had made an oath to myself that I would always protect my family, but I failed. Suddenly I heard my name and I pressed my ear further against the door.  
"You can't tell Raph, Sensei, he needs to protect the others," Leo's familiar voice was saying. Each word was like a knife driving through my heart, Leo would never be talking to me again. However, I was also confused. What wasn't Sensei allowed to tell me?  
"Leonardo, my son, your brother is taking this most poorly. Why can I not tell him this information? I believe it would help him cope. Donatello and Michelangelo should be informed as well," he said almost indignantly.  
"No Father, they can't know. I don't have long anyways, it wouldn't make a difference if they did come to try and find me. I will not allow them to endanger themselves simply to retrieve me, they can-"  
"Stop! Leonardo, you are not worthless. When I made you leader, I did it knowing that you would know when to make the necessary sacrifices and would lead your brothers well and wisely. I did not make you leader because I thought you were the one they needed the least! Why do you think that? We need you home my son," the pain was evident in Sensei's voice. I was extremely confused. Was Leo alive, or alive and about to die, or dead with not much time left to talk to Sensei? My head was reeling, and as a result I missed a healthy chunk of the next part of the conversation. I was jerked out of my thoughts by a sudden cry of pain from Leo.  
"My son! What is wrong?" cried Splinter.  
"Nothing, Father, I'm fine."  
"Leonardo, what is wrong? Is it where you were shot?"  
"Yes. I'm having trouble focusing, and I think the Kraang are going to come back for me soon. They want to know where the Lair is," groaned Leo. He was scared, and again it scared me. He was supposed to be the brave one, just like I was the hothead, Donnie was the smart one, and Mikey was the goofball.  
"Stay with me, Leonardo!" said Splinter, urgency in each word. Leo groaned again and clutched at his chest. Almost as if he could sense my presence at the door, he turned to look over his shoulder. Tears were trickling down his face when he turned around, but his eyes grew wide when he saw me.  
"Raph! What are you doing?" he cried.  
"Raphael?" asked Sensei angrily.  
"Leo! What are you doing? I though you were dead, yet here I find you talking with Sensei! Where are you? We'll come rescue you, bro," I said coming stepping into the room. This time I shut it and made sure Mikey wasn't nearby.  
Leo seemed to be struggling to find the right words. He cast a desperate glance towards Splinter as if asking him for help then looked back at me. " Well, um, I am alive Raph. I don't know where I am..., and I don't want you guys to come get me. Wherever I am, it's swarming with Kraang. You guys would never make it if you came," he said sadly.  
For the second time that day, I was having my heart ripped out of me. I could see my brother, I could hear him, heck I could probably touch him and yet I couldn't have him. More importantly, he had just told me he didn't want me to come get him. To heck with what he _wanted_, I wanted to get my brother!  
"Oh come on, Leo, don't get all high and mighty on me! You know as well as I do that you need us. We're coming to get you whether you like it or not!" I growled, "Stop being such an idiot!"  
"Raphael! That is enough!" said Sensei angrily, but I was mad.  
"Why on earth would you think we didn't want you? Why is it your decision where we can and can't go or do? We're big turtles, Leo, we don't need you telling us what to do!" the words were out before I could stop them. My eyes widened in surprise as I realized what I had just said. Leo had sacrificed himself for us, but I had just told him that we didn't need him!  
Leo sunk his head in resignation. He was blaming himself for this, just like he did everything else. Nothing was ever our faults; he always found a way to blame himself.  
"Leo, I didn't mean that, I was being stupid...," I began, but he didn't hear me. He had swung his head around and was looking at something we couldn't see. Suddenly he cried out and his head snapped back as if he had been hit, and he disappeared.  
That was the last time I saw Leo. Sensei told me that he would tell me if Leo ever contacted him again, but it hasn't happened. He could be being tortured, expremineted on, or possibly dead and the last thing I ever told him was that I didn't need him. The guilt weighs me down everyday when I look at Donnie and Mikey and Sensei. It weighs me down whenever I walk by the weapons rack in the dojo where Leo's spare set of katana lie on a shelf. It weighs me down when I walk past his bedroom door, walk past the stack of Space Heroes dvds by the TV, or by his beloved teapot in the kitchen. Everything reminds me of him, and when I shut my eyes to sleep at night I remember him. I have no escape, but I do have one thing that brings me comfort. I have promised myself that I will find him, and when I do I will never let him go again.


	6. Chapter 5

_Thump. Thump. Thump.___The loud, reassuring sound of my fists hitting the punching bag brought me back to the present. I was in the dojo working out, but at some point during my routine I had begun to think about Leo. The dojo was the only place where I felt safe enough to cry, because in here I could blame it on sweat or exhaustion and no one would question it. Hearing the door slide open, I quickly wiped my eyes and turned to face Mikey.  
He always came in here to check on me about this time of day. He craves attention, and he expects me to give it to him. However, he has grown up since losing Leo; I think he realizes that we're not super heroes and that we need to be taken care of too. I miss his jokes, he's so serious now which is why he completely caught me off guard by asking me what the punching bag had done to me.  
"What?" I asked in confusion. I glanced over at the punching bag to see that it was hanging from its chain by a thread and stuffing was everywhere. The joke was weak, but he had attempted one. Mikey hadn't made a joke in months.  
"The bag. Did it insult you or something? 'Caus I think you killed it, bro," he said with a grin. Now I was worried. He was joking and smiling... Had he broken something? Was he sick?  
"Mikey, ya feeling okay buddy?" I asked cautiously walking towards him.  
"Dude, it's our mutation day! I'm feeling great! Maybe April will bring us cake," he said excitedly. However, now that I was closer to him I could see the tear stains on his face. He was just as upset as I was, but he was trying to cheer me up. Gosh, I love Mikey.  
"Maybe she will! C'mon, let's go get Donnie. He shouldn't be locked up in his lab on this spectacular day," I said grinning. Putting my arm around Mikey's shoulder, we walked to Donnie's lab. Mikey hesitantly raised his hand to knock on the door to the lab when we heard angry yelling and the sound of crashing metal bits from the other side. Inwardly I sighed.  
The day Leo... disappeared... I lost two brothers to the Kraang. Leo sacrificed himself to save all of us, but the moment Donnie heard the news he threw himself into his lab became lost in his work against the Kraang. We rarely saw him, and not even April could lure him out of there. After April found out what happened, she practically moved in with us. Donnie still hadn't created a retro mutagen when _it _happened, and she knew that he probably wouldn't if she didn't push him to create one. However, she wanted to help us adjust to life without him. He had really been what held us together, and April stepped in to try and pick up the slack that I couldn't manage. I never would have been able to hold it all together and lead my brothers without her help.  
Another loud crash interrupted my thoughts. "Uh, Donnie, what's going on in there?" I asked.  
"Those stupid Kraang, they encrypted all their data with a whole new cipher! I was so close to finding him, why the SHELL WOULD THEY DO THAT?!" came the angry reply.  
I winced. Donnie refused to believe that Leo was dead, he continued to look for him. At first I had believed he was still alive as well, but as time went on with no more visits from his spirit, Sensei and I slowly fell into despair. Donnie however had never even known about the visits so I was worried that something was seriously wrong with him, but if there was Donnie was the only one smart enough to fix it so we pretty much just let him do his thing.  
"I'm coming in there, don't kill me bro!" I called as I pushed the door open. I tried to hide my shock as my eyes fell upon mess that Donnie called his lab. I hadn't been in here in a while, but I hadn't realized how bad things had gotten. Broken projects, vials, papers, books, and medical equipment were strewn haphazardly across the floor. Every surface was covered in clutter except for a cot pushed against the far wall and the desk directly in front of his enormous computer monitor. The lab that used to be the picture of cleanliness now looked like it belonged on the next episode of Hoarders.  
Donnie turned to face me with blood shot, crazed eyes. His mask sat awkwardly on his face, and he looked absolutely exhausted.  
"Why are you guys in here?" he asked tiredly, the rage that had been present in his voice only moment ago completely replaced by defeat.  
"It's our Mutation day, we came in here to get you so we could celebrate. We thought it would be nice," I said calmly, though inside I was seething that Donnie had allowed himself to become this way.  
"Ya!" joined in Mikey, "I'm going to order pizza and April might get us a cake! Then we can watch movies, it'll be just like last year!" suddenly his eyes widened as he realized the implications of what he had just said. I glared at him in annoyance and began a silent count down: 3..2...1...  
"WHAT?!" screamed Donnie, right on cue. "JUST LIKE LAST YEAR? How can you say that? I can think of one very important way that this year will not be like last year. For example, last year we had another brother!" he was exploding now, his face was flushed and his fists were clenched. Mikey cowered behind me, this new Donnie was scary.  
"Look, he wasn't saying it would be the same. He was trying to say that... um... it'll be similar to last year. We'll have the same food!" I said desperately trying to salvage the situation.  
"No, he was saying that we can have just as good a time without Leo, which we can't! We need him! WE NEED A LEADER; WE NEED LEO," cried Donnie, his voice rising again. I felt as if I had been slapped. They had a leader, me. Why couldn't Donnie understand that he wasn't coming back, he made it so hard for the rest of us.  
"Donnie, I am the leader now! Do you hear me? I am. We need Leo, but he isn't coming back! We might need him, but it's not because we need a leader because that's me. It's selfish of you to think that you're the only one who needs him. It's been months, Donnie, and every time one of us starts to heal, just a little, you rip through and mess everything up again!" I yelled back, breaking the rule I'd made to myself. I wasn't even aware of what I was saying at that point, I was just letting all my anger out.  
Suddenly Mikey was talking, much to both my and Donnie's surprise. "Stop, both of you," he said quietly. He was crying and immediatly I felt guilty. One glance at Don and I knew he felt the same way. "He sacrificed himself to save all of us. He's gone because he wanted us to keep living and be happy, but look at you two! You just took his life and threw it away. Some mutation day this turned out to be, I'll be in my room if you need me; otherwise don't bother me," he sobbed and ran out of the lab just as April walked into it. Honestly, could this day get any worse? I didn't need Donnie going nuts on April too.  
She looked us both up and down with disappointment written all over her face. She folded her arms across her chest and cocked her hip the way she always did when she was annoyed with us.  
"I got you guys a surprise to try and cheer you up because I figured today was going to be hard. I was not expecting it to be so hard that you were all at each other's throats. Go apologize to Mikey and then the three of you come meet me in the kitchen," she said slowly. A grin had slowly crept onto her face as she had talked about the surprise, and I was pretty sure she had gotten us a cake.  
"Okay, April. We'll be right there," said Donnie. He grabbed me by the arm and we ran up the stairs to catch up with Mikey.  
After apologizing profusely, we finally convinced Mikey to come down to the kitchen with us. The shadow of my goofy youngest brother had disappeared and the serious turtle who had replaced him had come back. Poking his shoulder and running I called over my shoulder, "Race ya to the kitchen!"  
"Oh, I'm gonna win!" cried Donnie, catching on to my idea to cheer Mikey up. When Donnie joined in the game a small smile crept onto Mikey's face and he came flying after us.  
"I think I'll win you guys. BOOYAKASHA!" he cried and a feeling of pure joy coursed through me at hearing him yell the familiar phrase. I could almost hear Leo's hearty laugh as I imagined him running with us, and for the first time in months I felt happy; but more importantly I knew my brother's were too.


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey y'all! So I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has read, commented, followed, or favorite my story J Also, I was thinking of doing a chapter from Leo's perspective. Since there has been some interest expressed in this I present without further ado… LEO!**

"The one that is the turtle that is the turtle known as Leonardo will tell the ones known as the Kraang the location that is where the turtles that are not known as Leonardo will be found," cried the fleshy pink blob in front of me.

Inwardly I groaned. These things were just getting annoying now. Every day for what had felt like years but was probably just months, my day had started with a Kraang in my face asking me where the Lair was. Every. Single. Day. Today I responded, as I had every other day, "No I will not."

"The turtle know as Leonardo will tell the Kraang where the turtles who are not Leonardo are in order for the ones known as Kraang to destroy the turtles not known as Leonardo," droned the Kraang for the millionth time. I have to admit, they are persistent. My morning will continue this way until eventually they leave me. About an hour after that, my cell door will open and a bowl of something will be pushed inside the cell. I will eat, then the Kraang will come back in to interrogate me some more. Round two of interrogation usually involves some kind of torture, recently their favorite has been a type of hallucinogenic gas that makes me see horrifying terrible things.

Yesterday after they drugged me, I imagined that they had let me go because they thought I was useless and stupid. I ran back to the Lair as fast as I could but found they didn't want me anymore. They taunted me, insulted me, and Raph chased from the Lair brandishing his Sais. He threatened to kill me if I ever showed my stupid, worthless face again while declaring that he was the leader. It hurt more than I care to admit, and when I finally woke up from the hallucination I was bawling.

It's impossible to know when I'm under the influence of the drug until after its effects have worn off, and that's what scares me about it the most. I've seen my brothers die in my arms helplessly, I've watched failed rescue missions, I saw the Shredder destroying Sensei, and I've seen everyone I've ever cared about die while I can do absolutely nothing. I've seen all this and more many times, but each time it happens it feels real. I'm scared that I'm going insane.

The Kraang also don't allow me to meditate after discovering that I could communicate with my family that way. I fear that the one time I did manage to contact Sensei, I did more harm than good, especially when Raph saw me. I know he didn't mean it when he said he didn't need me, he's always spouting off like that, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt. I need my brothers, but I never told them; I don't think I'm ever going to get the chance too. I think Raph is probably the leader now, and that makes me sad. He doesn't need that responsibility; he is supposed to be free to be crazy and hotheaded. I wonder how he is. Does he think I'm dead? It would be best if he did.

I think about Donnie and Mikey a lot too. Donnie never dealt with grief well, and when tragedy struck he always retreated to the lab. I was the only one who could get him out of there. He also would obsess on his projects without someone to guide him. I guess Raph has to do that now. I miss them both so much. Mikey, oh Mikey, he's the youngest one of us and the one who always brought me hope. He was always goofing off when he wasn't supposed to, but he brought happiness everywhere he went. I worry about him the most. Donnie, Raph, Sensei, and I always tried to shield him from the worst things. I hope he didn't lose that sweet innocence. I'm sure they're all fine, but I worry about them just the same.

"TURTLE! Is the turtle that is the turtle known as Leonardo listening with what the holes known as ears?" screeched the Kraang. Well, that's a new one.

"What?" I growl. They really are annoying.

"Today is the day that the Kraang have decided will be the day we show the other turtles that are not the ones that is known as Leonardo the turtle known as Leonardo. The Kraang have created that which is known as a "Plan B"," it screeched.

"Wait, what? What day is it today?" I asked in confusion. Were they planning on showing me to my brothers? They were planning on showing them that I was alive? Why would they do that- wait. They want to lure my brothers into a trap. I'm the bait!

"Today is the day which is the 29 day of the month which is known as September," the Kraang informed me. Clearly it had misunderstood my question, but that didn't matter. Today was my Mutation day. The thought was both extremely depressing and encouraging. On the plus side, I was sixteen today. I had lived sixteen years despite the impossible odds stacked against me. It also meant that the Kraang had only had me for about three months. This was both a plus and minus. I hadn't been held for nearly as long as I had thought, but it also made me feel guilty. I have been away from my brothers for far too long.

Suddenly I felt the urge to cry, but I didn't want the Kraang to see me weak; I wasn't that pathetic yet. Holding back a sob, I thought about last year's mutation day. It had been our first mission out of the Lair. We discovered pizza, the Kraang, and April and started on the road to becoming the vigilantes of New York. Last year had been great. I remember how proud of us Splinter was when we returned to the Lair; I remember how we thought pizza was a weapon before Mikey stuck it in his mouth; but even before that, I remember the moment when we were all gathered around Sensei in the kitchen eating and listening to the Mutation Story for what must have been the hundredth time. It had been such a happy day.

I squeezed my eyes shut to hold back the tears, then raised my head to look at the smug Kraang in front of me. "You will never get my brothers. I will protect them until I die!" I spat into the Kraang's face with all the anger, determination, and bitterness I could muster.

"Kraang will get the ones known as the turtles which are your brothers, and the Kraang will kill you turtle known as Leonardo," it replied coolly. With that, it spun its hovercraft around and sailed out of the room. My eyes widened in fear, and then I realized that the only way I could save my family was to contact Sensei and tell him not to come. The Kraang would hurt me, but it was worth it if I could save my brother's lives.

Inhaling deeply, I settled onto the floor of my cell and crossed my legs. Lightly resting my hands on my knees, I shut my eyes and imagined myself sitting in Sensei's room on the floor. I pictured every detail of the room, every knick knack, every crack in the wall, every spider web in the corners. I imagined the feeling of the wood on my skin, and I imagined the peace and safety I felt there. Then I opened my eyes and found myself face to face with my beyond stunned father.

"Leo… Leo… Leonardo! My son! You're alive!" He was stumbling over his words, and the joy and relief on his face was incredible. He made as if to wrap his arms around me in a hug, only to have his paws go through me.

"Oof," I muttered. That was a weird feeling. Sensei's face fell as he remembered that it was just my spirit and not actually me that was visiting. A thought occurred to him and he looked scared.

"My son, you are alive, right?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes Father, I am," I said with a smile. His toothy grin lit up his entire face.

"I am extremely glad to hear that. One moment please," he said as he rushed to the door. I watched him in confusion.

"Raphael! Come here!" he called as he pulled open the door to his room. I heard Raph's gruff voice respond from somewhere else in the Lair,

"No, Sensei, come here! April is getting ready to light the candles on the cake!"

"Ya, Sensei, come here please!" added a familiar nasally voice. I smiled, that was Donnie.

"Please, Sensei? You can light Leo's candle," came a meek but familiar voice. Was that really Mikey? He sounded so different, so… depressed. Sensei winced, clearly it pained him to know that Mikey and Donnie thought I was dead. He was also a little annoyed that no one was listening to him.

"Raphael, now! I will come out when I am done talking to you. Raphael, I need your help with the thing," replied Sensei. I laughed at his feeble attempt to get Raph into the room.

"What thing?" asked Raph as he made his way to Sensei's room.

"Ya know, that _thing,_" insisted Sensei. As Raph came to the door, Sensei grabbed him by the arm and yanked him into the room. Raph looked at him in surprise; he still hadn't noticed me.

"What on earth is going on Sensei? Are you all right?" asked Raph worriedly. He looked older than he had last time I had seen him even though it had only been a few months.

"Raphael, turn around, and remember to stay quiet," instructed Sensei.

Raph slowly spun around until he was facing me. His jaw dropped, and he stood there staring at me in shock. Suddenly he was flying at me, an enormous smile plastered across his face. I help up my hands in front of me to stop him from running through me, and he drew to a stop.

"LEO YOU'RE HERE! Wait what's wrong?" he yelled. Then he realized that he'd yelled and he blanched. I heard the pounding footsteps of Donnie and Mikey approaching quickly. Raph looked at me in shock, his green eyes wide.

"Please tell me you're alive. Tell me I can tell them that," he said hopefully.

"I am," I replied as my two youngest brothers burst through the door. Raph looked at me with joy, shock, relief, and a little of his characteristic anger, and then turned to face Mikey and Donnie. April was standing behind them and all three of them were the picture of shock; it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen, but I held back my laugh.

Mikey had his nun chucks dangling by his side as if he had been expecting a fight, his eyes were wide and he looked like he didn't quite understand what he was seeing. Confusion was written all of his face. Donnie was standing next to him. He had his hands poised in front of his face as if he was trying to catch something. Pure relief was on his face along with a smug grin; I guess he had told everyone I was still alive but they thought he was nuts. April was looking at me with equal amounts of shock, suspicion, and happiness. The three just stood there looking at me dumbstruck until finally Mikey stepped forward.

"Leo…?"


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey y'all! So now chapter 8 is up… just a warning, these chapters aren't going to go up at a consistent rate at all. Thanks everyone for reading, I'm up to 17 follow and 12 favorites, yay! To HardyGal- yes, I did get the hallucinogenic gas idea from another fic, I should have mentioned that. I don't remember which it was, but it was really good. **

.

Mikey took another step forward. He blinked and then asked again, "Leo, is that really you? You're here?"

Leo shook his head. "It's really me, Mikey, but I'm not actually here. I'm projecting my spirit here. I need to talk to you all, but I don't have much time so-"Donnie cut him off.

"So you're alive. Why did you only call for Raph?" he said angrily, turning to Master Splinter.

"I didn't know how long Leonardo was going to be here for and I didn't want you two to get hurt. Raph needed to see Leo, he's been blaming himself," replied Sensei calmly. Donnie glared angrily at him, and Leo looked at Donnie in shock, he wasn't used to the new angry Donnie. April was still studying Leo cautiously, and I was watching him with baited breath. There was so much I wanted to tell him, and there was so much I needed to ask him. Suddenly I realized what I needed to ask him more than anything else in the world.

"Leo, where are you, bro?" I asked nervously. I remembered that his last visit had been cut short, and now that I was looking at him it was clear that the Kraang had been treating him horribly. He was severely underweight, and his pale skin hung loosely from his frame. He looked sick, there were bags under his haunted eyes and scars riddled his body from where he had obviously been tortured. My blood boiled looking at him, I had let the Kraang do this to him. I had let him be captured. Leo began speaking and I was jerked out of my thoughts.

"I'm being held in a Kraang detention facility somewhere. I don't know where, but you have to listen to me, they have a plan. They've been…," he trailed off as if looking for a word that wouldn't scare us," trying to get information from me. They want to know where the Lair is, but I wouldn't tell them. They plan on showing me to you guys soon. It's a trap. You _cannot_ come get me. Under no circumstances are you to try and save me! They'll only catch you guys and then all this will have been for nothing," he said.

I looked at him in disbelief. We were going to have a chance, soon, to rescue him, and he didn't want us to. Rage boiled in me, except this time I didn't try and suppress it as I have been. It didn't matter what Leo wanted, I was getting my brother back. I glanced over at Mikey and Donnie, and it was clear they were having similar thoughts. Mikey was looking at Leo as if he were an idiot, and Donnie was outright glaring at him. Master Splinter's shoulders had sagged as if he were agreeing with Leo that we couldn't go, though he did look like it was tearing him up on the inside. He was so close to having his eldest son back. April no longer looked suspicious, she knew that this was something Leo would say.

"Look, shell for brains, it doesn't matter whether or not you want us to come get you, because we are. No turtle is getting left behind. You made that rule, remember? You're not exempt from that rule," I said angrily.

"But I don't want you guys to get hurt! You don't know what they can do…," he trailed off and let out a shaky breath before continuing. "It's horrific. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if they hurt you and I knew I could stop it. Besides, they're planning on killing me whether or not you come. I'm not going to let you all get hurt for a worthless cause."

At this Sensei's head jerked up. He had bowed his head in thought, but when he heard Leo he looked up in shock. "My son, you are many things but _worthless_ is not one of them!" he exclaimed.

Leo opened his mouth to reply when he turned his head and his blue eyes widened in fear. His image started to waver, and he looked at all of us desperately before yelling, "Don't come for me! I love you all," and disappearing.

"No! LEO!" I yelled, but I knew it was useless. He couldn't hear me anymore. Donnie hung his head dejectedly.

"I didn't even get to say anything to him," Donnie muttered sadly.

Mikey and April just stood there in surprise. Finally he looked at me.

"We're going to go get him, right Raphie?"

I didn't even bother to yell at him for using my stupid nickname. I was forming a plan.

"Ya. We're gonna get him," I assured Mikey.

"No you will most certainly not! I am not going to lose anymore sons. I miss Leonardo as much as the rest of you, but I cannot allow you all to go on a suicide mission to retrieve him. You don't even know where he is!" cried Master Splinter. His voice broke, but he remained firm.

"But Sensei, they could be able to retrieve him. What if we could try and retrieve him before the Kraang reveal his whereabouts? They wouldn't be expecting it and we might stand a chance!" exclaimed April. Leo was just as much her brother as he was everyone else's and she wasn't about to let him go.

"April, we don't know where he is," snapped Mikey.

"Actually, I could trace the scan the area where Leo was standing and using the EM signature I could look over all the known Kraang holding facilities until I find a signature that matches. It actually wouldn't take that long," said Donnie. I couldn't believe my ears, was Donnie actually going into some technical jibber-jabber outside the lab?

"Ya! Let's do it. We might need some pizza first, ya know so we can focus because we have full bellies?" pleaded Mikey excitedly. What on earth? My brothers were back- for the first time in three months I had my two little brothers back. That quieted any doubts in my mind. We were going to get Leo back; we needed our brother home.

"Alright guys, let's get to work," I exclaimed. Sensei started to protest, but it was halfhearted. He wanted his son back just as much as we wanted our brother back.

We all scattered to the corners of the dojo. Mikey ran into the kitchen where the Mutation Day cake lay forgotten on the counter. He yanked the phone off the wall and began ordering an extra-large everything on top pizza. Donnie sprinted into the lab then reemerged a few moments later carrying a weird device with an antenna on it. He went into Sensei's room, and a series of weird beeps followed by a "Eureka!" echoed out. April went into the dojo and began to practice her moves. I was excited at the idea of going to find Leo, but I couldn't form a plan until Donnie found where he was so I felt useless. I decided to go up to Leo's room. I opened the door and sat down on the dusty bed. No one had been in here since that horrible day, and everything was just how the neat freak had left it.

His bed was still neatly made, every poster was hung perfectly on the walls, and his bookshelf was neatly organized. I lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Leo had painted a starry night sky onto the ceiling. I smiled, it made me happy to think he went to bed looking at the stars every night. However, I quickly grew angry. For the past three months he hadn't been able to see his stars. I looked around the room again and saw the Space Heroes action figures lined up on a shelf. He hadn't gone on adventures with his heroes in three months. Finally my eyes landed on a framed picture on his nightstand. It had been taken recently, I remember how Donnie had set up the timer on the camera to take it by itself. Master Splinter was standing behind all of us, looking at Mikey and I with a shocked look on his face as I had pulled Mikey into a headlock. Donnie was blushing and stealing a glance at April who had her arm around him, and Leo had his arm around Donnie on the other side. His eyes were sparkling and he was laughing at Mikey and I. I felt a familiar rush of determination, Leo hadn't really seen his family in three months, and I was going to change that.

I hugged the picture to my chest. "Hold on Leo, we're coming for ya," I whispered to the stars.

**So what do y'all think? Please comment! See y'all next time my lovely readers :)**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey y'all, I'm baaaaack! I've been a little busy so I've been writing this is in my spare time. Please excuse any errors. I'm sorry the last chapter was a little short, this one will be longer. Thank you for reading, and have a great day my lovely readers!**

The Kraang stepped back into my room, and I struggled to focus on my family. I looked at them all desperately. "Don't come for me! I love you all," I cried out as I felt the connection breaking. A feeling of peace settled over me, I had said my good byes, and my brothers were safe.

_ Thwack._ The right side of my face erupted in pain as the Kraang droid struck me.

"The turtle that is the one that is known as Leonardo has attempted to communicate with the other ones known as the turtles. The turtle known as Leonardo will be punished. First, turtle will tell Kraang where the other ones known as the turtles are located," it croaked angrily.

I glared at the disgusting creature before me. "Over my dead body," I growled back at it. Today was different from what I had grown used to, and despite having felt weak this morning when I heard the Kraang's plan, I felt strong now knowing that my family was safe. The Kraang could do whatever they wanted for me, but my brother's weren't coming. They would never get my brothers.

The Kraang screeched, and two more Kraang droids marched into the cell. This was new, they always came in one at a time. The first Kraang to have walked in was holding a collar, and the second was holding a leash. I closed my eyes in annoyance. _You have got to be kidding me…_ I thought angrily.

The Kraang marched over and attempted to put the collar around my neck. I struggled against them, but the pain in my side from the gunshot wound they hadn't bothered healing stopped me. Grimacing, I allowed myself to be put into the humiliating contraption. Roughly yanking me, the Kraang dragged out of the cell and into a brightly lit hallway. I had been unconscious when the Kraang had first brought me in here, and everything around me was unfamiliar.

The Kraang yanked on the leash, and I was jerked further out into the hallway. I could see more of it now, and I realized that there were multiple cells along the hallway. The doors were made of steel, and the dingy white wall around them were cracked. One of the walls had blood smeared across it, but it didn't look recent. The cold stone floor beneath my feet was uneven, and I smirked as a Kraang droid ahead of stumbled. It was nice to think they were clumsy; it reminded me that there was still a living creature in there- even if the creature was a blood thirsty, insane, pink blob from another dimension. Gosh, my life is weird.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked curiously. I didn't really expect an answer.

"Kraang asks Kraang to please shut that which is known as a turtle up," replied the Kraang holding the leash. The one next to me proceeded to kick me where I had been shot. My entire body erupted in pain, and stars danced before my eyes. I groaned and fell to my knees.

"Kraang told Kraang to make that which is the turtle quiet, not kill that which is known as the turtle. Kraang is that which is known as an idiot," remarked the Kraang with the leash in annoyance. Had I been in any other situation I would have laughed.

"Kraang tells Kraang that Kraang did not kill that which is known as the turtle. Kraang tells Kraang that that which is known as a turtle will still make it to that which is the place that is the place for the plan," replied the other Kraang sassily. Could Kraang even be sassy?

I groaned again, and pulled my hand away from my chest. It was covered in blood. _Great. Maybe I'll bleed out before they can kill me in front of my brothers_, I thought sadly. However, I knew it wasn't going to bleed that much- or at least not that quickly.

The Kraang roughly shoved me to my feet, sending another wave of pain coursing through my body. I grit my teeth to keep from crying out and marched on down the hall. Door after door passed by, some held prisoners, but most were empty. Mutants, probably experiments, were held in cells adjacent to humans who had had the misfortune of becoming wrapped up in the Kraang's plan.

One reached out its hand- tentacle? Claw? - To me and let out a sound that could only have been a cry for help. It was pitiful, and everything in me wanted to save it but how could I save that creature when I wasn't even able to save myself?

The Kraang prodded me in the back with its gun to make me move faster, and with every step I took a fresh wave of pain coursed through me. I hadn't moved much in my cell to prevent this pain, but now that I was being forced to move it hurt more than anything I had ever experienced before- and I have fallen off of buildings. Finally, we turned out of what seemed to be a never ending hallway and made our way towards a set of enormous metal doors. The Kraang droid in front of me leaned its head towards a key pad to the right of the door and uttered a series of unintelligible screeches. Apparently "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek an eeeeeeeeek eek" meant something, because the doors swung open and I found myself ushered into an enormous room filled with Kraang.

Hundreds of droids and hovercraft swiveled to look at me as we came into the room before turning back to their work. Along the right wall was an enormous board of blinking lights and screens. Tentacles flew across the board hitting buttons and punching codes. Armed Kraang droids stood threateningly at either end of the table. On the other side of the room stood multiple glass chambers filled with a green slime-like substance. All but one of the containers was filled with creatures. Some were mutated, some were normal earth creatures, and some were obviously from Dimension X. However, they all had one thing in common- they were all in some sort of unconscious state that I guessed must be induced by the green slime they were stuck inside.

However, what was the strangest thing in the room was the huge platform in the center of the room. A staircase wound around the sides of the circular structure until it reached the top where there was a huge throne, and sitting atop the throne was none other than the High Kraang himself, the same Kraang I had nearly died fighting six months ago. I had thought I had destroyed him, but apparently I was wrong. The Kraang holding my leash began to drag me up the stairs the top of the platform. An intense feeling of fear settled in my gut as the High Kraang looked down on me in disdain. Whatever he had planned for me, I knew it was going to horrible. I cherished those last moments on the steps before I found myself face to face with enormous, disgusting Kraang in front of me.

I was forced to kneel in front of it, and I couldn't suppress the cry of pain that rose within me as more pressure was placed on the gaping hole in my chest. The High Kraang let out a hiss of what could only be delight then began to speak.

"Leonardo, my Kraang tell me that you have been most… disagreeable when they try to find the whereabouts of your brothers. I asked them to bring you here to me to offer you one last chance to tell us where they are before we, how do I say this, put you under," it hissed in its disgusting voice.

I looked at it in shock. The High Kraang had always been able to speak more coherently than its smaller counter parts, but this was unbelievable. However, I decided to focus on the more pressing matter.

"I'll never tell you where they are!" I spat angrily.

"Oh, that's rather unfortunate. Let me tell you what we will be doing to you, then we'll see if you're still so loyal to your brothers. Did you see those tanks against the far wall, Leonardo?" he looked at me for a response. I nodded, and he continued, "Do you see how they are filled but one? We will be putting you in that last tank, you'll make a great addition! Inside those tanks is a combination of mutagen and a gas called Consciousieron, a gas from Dimension X, as well as a few other chemicals I won't bore you with. Once inside that tank, you will be held in the exact state you were in when you were originally stored for as long as we wish. Your wounds will not heal, you will not age, and you will not be able to move. Your heart will stop and you will stop breathing, but since you are perfectly preserved in the goo you will not die.

"However, to all who see you, you will appear dead, and furthermore, if anyone attempts to remove you from the goo without the proper equipment- which only we Kraang possess- you will die, immediately. You won't even wake up. However the entire time you are being held in the goo, you will be conscious. Most creatures lose their sanity after a while, so I will be curious to see how you hold up since you are so resilient. Also, if you think that you will be able to meditate and contact your family while in the goo, you are wrong. The goo possesses the ability to break all connections to the spirit world. You will truly be alone, Leonardo, for years on end, possibly decades. So tell me, will you still not give up your brothers? Because if you do, we will kill you quickly instead," concluded the Kraang.

I began to shake as the implications of what the High Kraang had just told me began to sink in. I would be alone, in pain, slowly losing my sanity for years with no escape because even if my brothers attempted to rescue me in the years to come, I would die before they could do anything. It was horrifying, but at the same time I had vowed to protect my brothers, and this is what I must do.

"I will never give them up, they are my family, they are my brothers, and there is no greater dishonor than betraying one's family. Go ahead and put me in the tank, just remember that I will be watching your every move, every second of every day. Remember that when your plans fail, remember that I will be watching!" I snarled. The Kraang growled at me.

"Put him in, immediately!" he screamed angrily,

The Kraang holding my leash jerked me violently down the stairs and to the tank. Each step became increasingly harder as I neared what was to become my prison for the years to come. The Kraang hit a button on the base of the tank that was so well hidden I never would have found it. The front of the tank slid open, and the gelatinous substance held its form instead of spilling out the opening as I would have expected. I twitched my fingers one last time before the Kraang turned me around so that I was facing the inside of the room instead of a wall. At least I would have some entertainment instead of being forced to stare at a wall for years on end. I took a deep breath and slowly released it as the Kraang hoisted me into the air and roughly shoved me into the goo.

I felt it settle around me and its cold embrace enveloped me on all sides. The High Kraang had been wrong about one thing, I wasn't going to be in pain while I was in here. I couldn't feel anything; I was numb all over. The Kraang hit the button on the base of the tank and the glass slid shut in front of me. It stood back to admire its handiwork before turning to say something to the High Kraang who smiled, revealing its hundreds of needle sharp teeth.

A feeling of dread settled over me as I realized that not only could I not feel anything, I couldn't hear anything either. I began to feel panic creeping into me, but this time I allowed it to settle in and stay for a while. After all, I wasn't able to scream. I wouldn't appear weak, and so for the first time in my life, I allowed myself to be afraid. Thoughts swirled through my head. What if I never made it out? What if something went wrong and I died in here? What if I go crazy? What if I forget everything that makes me, me? What if I forget my family? But the greatest fear that I had was what if my brothers try and save me?

**Thanks for reading my lovely readers! Have a fantastic day, and tell me if you want the next chapter to be from Leo or Raph's pov, I have ideas for both! Until next time…. mwahahaha**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hello Lovely Readers! So if the Turtles were real, scale of 1-10 how mad would they be with me right now? :) Staying true to form, I am updating at a completely random rate- sorry if it annoys you! Thanks to everyone for reading, I'm so grateful to all of you. So now that I've done my random babbling, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!**

"Raph!" I heard Donnie scream from the lab. I was sitting on the couch channel surfing, absolutely nothing good is on at three in the afternoon. It's been almost three days since we talked to Leo, and Donnie has been searching for him all over the city, but so far he has found nothing.

"Raph! Get in here now," called Donnie again. I heaved myself over the back of the couch and walked into the lab. Mikey was already inside. He was sitting on a stool, swinging his legs in the air, a piece of pizza in one hand and a pen in the other. Donnie had had Mikey taking notes and marking off maps for him for the past few days in return for pizza. It was some creative thinking on Donnie's part, I don't think I've ever seen Mikey this focused.

Donnie was leaning in to examine a virtual map of New York City. There were big red X's marked over every building we had checked and found no signs of Leo. Currently Donnie was examining what appeared to be the Kraang's headquarters here, TCRI, but I was confused. The Kraang didn't keep prisoners there as far as we could tell, they only kept experiments there.

"RAPH!" screamed Donnie again, clearly not noticing that I was already in the lab.

"Dude, I'm right here," I replied.

Much to my amusement, Donnie nearly jumped out of his shell.

"Gosh, Raph, you nearly gave me a heart attack! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I'm a ninja… more importantly _you're _a ninja. You should have heard me," I pointed out.

Donnie blushed. "Shut up, I was working,"

"Whatever, why am I in here? Did you find him?" I asked eagerly.

"Not exactly," commented Mikey as Donnie opened his mouth to speak. Donnie shot him a look that sent Mikey cowering back into silence.

"Whaddaya mean 'not exactly'?" I said angrily, looking at Donnie and raising an eye ridge.

"Well, we found traces of his energy signature on the 20th floor of the TCRI building," began Donnie, but I cut him off.

"Then why aren't we there getting him?"

"I'm getting to that. I scanned the building and traces of his energy signature go from a room in the east wing, where they must have been holding him because it's strongest there, to another room in the north wing where it seems he walked around for a little bit before it just vanishes," stated Donnie in confusion.

"It vanishes?" I asked nervously. Does that mean that the Kraang killed my brother before we even had a chance to get him? But that would've ruined their plan, so they wouldn't have killed him… unless they were planning on showing us his dead body and hoped to trick us into thinking he was alive, but that wouldn't make sense. I was extremely confused.

Donnie looked at me sympathetically. "I've tried to figure it out, but none of the scenarios I have come up with make sense! Even if they had killed him, his signature would still be there, just weaker,"

I let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't dead, but then what had happened to him? I glanced at Mikey. He was pretending to be completely engrossed in his pizza, but I could tell he was listening to us. He had a nervous look on his face, and the little spark of mirth that had made its way back into his eyes over the past couple days was almost completely gone.

"Mikey, are you okay buddy?" I asked as I made my way over to him. Donnie turned back to his desk and began working out probable scenarios.

"Ya… just nervous, I guess. I miss him, Raph," he said slowly.

"Don't worry! We're going to get him back, I promise. I miss him too," I replied sadly.

Mikey looked at me worriedly. He had a peculiar look on his face, it was almost like he was thinking. Confirming my suspicion, he turned to Donnie and me and began, "Donnie, Raph, I've been thinking," I thought Donnie was going to fall over, and after glaring at him, Mikey continued, "Stop looking at me like that! I can think, I have a brain! But anyways, I've been thinking. What if Leo's energy sig-sim- sug? Whatever. What if Leo's energy thingy disappeared because the Kraang sent him to Dimension X? We know that they were working on a portal, we've only shut it down about a million times. What if they finally got it up and running but sent Leo through as a test subject?!"

My heart skipped a beat, and a feeling of complete terror took over me. I was the protector, it was my job to protect my brothers, and if what Mikey said turned out to be true than not only had I failed my older brother again, he was as good as dead. I wouldn't be able to save him in Dimension X, if that's where he was then he was gone for good. I felt a rage boiling within me, how dare the Kraang send Leo into Dimension X! How dare they! And how dare Leo leave us! We need him, how could he just leave us like this? A small voice in the back of my mind tried to remind me that none of this was Leo's fault, and that he probably was unable to fight back against the Kraang in his condition, but I chose to ignore it.

Letting out an angry roar, I punched the wall. Hearing an annoyed sigh, I looked up to see Donnie looking at me in frustration. However, he too looked upset. Mikey looked completely surprised that we were actually taking him seriously, and for about half a second the orange masked idiot looked proud of himself, _proud!_, but he quickly realized what it meant that we were even considering that what he said was true. He looked at Donnie desperately.

"It's just a stupid idea, right Donnie? Tell me I'm wrong and go back to ignoring me!" he whispered meekly.

Donnie hung his head sadly. "I wish I could. We don't have all the facts yet, but with the information we do have, that is the most plausible explanation. However, it's impossible for us to build our own portal to Dimension X even if we wanted to. If that's where Leo is, then he is gone. At least he is still alive there," replied Donnie dejectedly.

Mikey big blue eyes widened in shock. I glared at Donnie, we were supposed to sugar coat it for the youngest! Tears welled up inside Mikey's eyes and the hope that I had seen in him these past few days disappeared. He fled the room without another word. I heard his footsteps echoing around the Lair as he ran across the floor, and a resounding bang reverberated through the too quiet house as he slammed his door.

"Way to go Shell-for-brains, you couldn't sugar coat it at all for him?!" I growled at Donnie. I hated fighting with Donnie; I was breaking the rule I had made for myself when I lost Leo that I would never hurt my brothers, but I was still angry.

"Actually, I did sugar coat it, Raph. I'll explain later. We need to tell Master Splinter this new theory, because you have to remember, that's all it is at this stage," replied Donnie with a sigh. He was exhausted, I could see that now, and worry was etched into every feature on his face.

"That was sugar coated?" I remarked in shock.

Donnie merely nodded then took my hand and dragged me into Sensei's room. He knocked twice, then came pushed the door open.

"Sensei?" asked Donnie cautiously. He didn't want to startle the old rat; we've learned through trial and error over the years that that almost always ends poorly.

Sensei was sitting in the center of his room with his legs crossed and paws resting on his knees meditating. Candles were placed all over the room casting an eerie yet comforting glow across the ground. Donnie and I sat down across from Sensei quietly so as not to disturb him and waited for him to come out of his trance.

Sitting there in Sensei's room, I felt safe. I knew that Sensei would always protect me and my brothers as much as he possibly could, and despite his haggard and sometimes terrifying appearance, I knew he was a big softie on the inside. His patience knew no bounds, and I envied him for that. He was everything Leo aspired to be, and I felt guilty when I thought of all the grief I had given him for that. Leo just wanted to protect us just like I did, we both simply had different ways of going about it. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, I promised myself that I would apologize to him when we found him. I didn't care if I had to cross dimensions to get him back, he was coming home.

Finally Sensei began to stir. His eyes opened and he observed us both with a well-trained, fatherly eye.

"My sons, I sense something is wrong. Please tell me what troubles you," he said kindly. I looked at Donnie. We should have thought this through a little better. With a single glance at each other it was decided that Donnie was the man- er, turtle- for the job.

"Ahem, well, um, we found Leo, but we didn't," began Donnie nervously. Mentally I face palmed. Okay, technical speech, give it to Donnie. I'll handle public relations. Studying our father's confused face, I picked up where Donnie had left off.

"Okay, Donnie traced Leo energy signature to a floor in TCRI, but it looked like they had moved him from a holding room to another room in another part of the building where his signature just vanished, which apparently shouldn't be possible. Then Mikey had the idea, "I glanced at my father's incredulous face then continued, "What if the Kraang had finally gotten their portal to Dimension X to work but had sent Leo in as a test? As much as any of us care to admit it, it would make sense. At least we know he would be alive there," I said hopefully. I added as an afterthought, "Of course, it's just a theory."

Donnie was shaking his head sadly, and Sensei looked at him curiously.

"Do you have something to add, Donatello?"

"Yes, Sensei. You see, Raph, I was sugar coating it when I said Leo would still be alive in Dimension X. The way the Kraang would know if it was safe to cross back into their home dimension would be if Leo died after crossing. The gas in Dimension X is extremely toxic to anything from our dimension, but if there's not enough of it or if it's not potent enough to kill a turtle then the Kraang wouldn't be able to go back. It's better for Mikey to believe that Leo is there and living then there and dead. However, while this theory explains how Leo's energy signature disappeared, it wouldn't make sense for the Kraang to kill him because he was instrumental to their plan to lure us out.

"Now I'm just thinking aloud here, but what if the Kraang have found a way to sever Leo's connection to the Spirit realm? That would explain his missing signature while still maintain the idea that he is alive," finished Donnie growing short of breath. He had a familiar sparkle in his eye from being allowed to go into his 'idea talk' as I call it.

Splinter stroked his beard slowly. Eventually he looked at both of us and sighed in defeat. It is possible that your brother is dead. It is also possible that he is alive and in great pain. It is also possible that he is in another dimension, or that the Kraang are torturing him for information. With so many possibilities and no real idea of what has happened, I believe the safest plan is to wait and see what has happened to Leonardo when the Kraang reveal him to us,"

We both started to protest, but Sensei held up a furry paw to silence us.

"I want your brother home as much as you two, but I can't risk sending you all into the Kraang headquarters with no definitive idea of what you will be doing, what you will be facing, and what state your brother is in. I am not willing to throw Leonardo's sacrifice away and lose more children," he said sadly. That's when I realized that I wasn't looking at the strong rat I had grown up with, but the broken man Hamato Yoshi who had lost more than any man ever should. It scared me.

Master Splinter dismissed us, and we sullenly made our way back out into the Lair. I slammed the door behind me, and sat down heavily on the couch. I passed a hand slowly over my face. What was I going to tell Mikey?


	11. Chapter 10

**Hello lovely readers! I really appreciate all the reviews I've been getting. Also, I'm up to 13 favs and 20 follows, I can't even begin to tell you how excited that makes me! I never thought anyone would read it, and yet here we are at chapter 10 now. Thanks again for all the continued support, y'all are the best! So question: Does anyone have any ideas they are just dying to have happen? Tell me in the comments if you do. Have a fantastic day lovely readers! Enjoy!**

It's been two months with nothing from the Kraang. What the heck are they planning? The days go by slowly, but we're finally starting to piece our lives back together. Don't get me wrong, Donnie and I still research and work a ton to figure out what happened to Leo, but we can't stand to put Mikey through all the stress. I explained to him what Donnie said during our meeting with Master Splinter when he finally emerged from his room, and he seemed excited. He isn't the same as he used to be, none of us are, but I have found the occasional rubber snake in the refrigerator or laughed at some lame joke.

Donnie has stopped drowning himself in work, and living solely off coffee. He's been training with us again, and he seems to be slowly but surely losing the crazed look in his eye. We're all finally starting to heal, and as happy as it makes me to see my younger brothers happy, I feel guilty. I know that this is what Leo would have wanted, but I can't shake the guilt. I still think it's my fault that he's missing. I don't think he's dead. The Kraang, as much as I hate to admit it, are smarter than that. They wouldn't kill the most important part of their trap.

I don't know what they've been up to or what they've been doing with him, but I hope he's all right wherever he is. I've started keeping a journal of all the things that have happened, all the Foot ninja we've busted on patrol, and all the important and little things my brothers and I have done. I know Leo will be upset that he missed so much, so now he can read about it. No one knows about though, I'm the hot head. I can't have them think I'm going soft.

I walked over to the lab and pushed the door open. Donnie was tinkering with a piece of Kraang technology that we had found on a recent bust. It had been strange, I had seen a droid set it down as they were leaving, almost as if he wanted us to find it. I dismissed the thought, the Kraang don't do that; it's not their style.

"Hey Donnie," I said as I walked in. Donnie looked up from his work briefly to acknowledge my presence before continuing to go at the piece of metal with a screwdriver. It was a round, almost egg shaped, smooth metal device. There were no openings or buttons, it was simply a metal egg, and it was driving Donnie insane as he tried to figure out what it was.

"Have you had any life-altering break throughs?" I joked. My sarcasm was lost on him.

"Life altering? No. I did find a small hole with a lens of some sort, but I don't want to risk breaking it to get to the inner mechanisms," he muttered. I could see the tech talk lecture coming.

"What do you think it's for?"

"I don't know. It's so weird, and it's not particularly heavy so I don't think it's holding anything, but I could be wrong," he sighed and placed the metal egg on the table.

As soon as Donnie's hand left the egg, a light beam shot from the lens on the side and projected the image of a Kraang onto the far wall.

"Argh!" screamed Donnie in surprise. I shoved Donnie behind me out of instinct and raised my sais up to fight off the "invading" Kraang.

Quickly we realized that it was just a picture, and we glanced at each other.

"We never speak of this again, agreed?" I said.

"Agreed," replied Donnie sheepishly.

The picture began to move and I realized that it was a video, a video of the High Kraang who had tried to kill us all in the Technodrome. I was confused, hadn't Leo destroyed him?

"Hello turtles. I take it you two are the ones known as Raphael and Donatello. Please call for the rest of your family; I don't want them to miss this," he hissed with a creepy smile.

I was shocked, the High Kraang could always speak well but this was surprising. I sent Donnie out to go get Sensei, April, and Mikey. While they were coming, I figured out that this was some kind of extremely advanced video chat. Kraang were flying haphazardly in every direction in the background, and a large pedestal was situated in the center of the room. Against the far wall were large cylindrical containers that appeared to be holding things, but I couldn't see what.

Finally Sensei, followed quickly by April, Donnie, and Mikey, came into the room. Master Splinter hissed at the creature that had taken his son with obvious loathing. Mikey looked at it, his eyes wide, and April glared at the thing that had caused her family so much trouble with so much hate you could practically feel it.

The Kraang on the screen hissed again in delight before beginning to speak again.

"Hello turtles and company. I admit, I was not expecting a giant rat. However, that is hardly relevant. I have contacted you in an attempt to allow you to bargain for your brother's life. Would you like to see him?" he asked, grinning wickedly. A feeling of dread settled in my gut, clearly they had done something to him.

The camera followed the High Kraang as he moved. He seemed to be moving towards the containers, and as we got closer I saw that every single one of them was full. There was a creature submerged in green goo, but the creature at the end closest to us seemed familiar. I began to feel sick, surely that wasn't Leo.

Finally, it stopped in front of the canister. "Look at your leader, turtles. Look at how we have defeated him," it laughed. I heard a sharp intake of breath and looked to see Mikey turning a weird color. He looked absolutely disgusted and extremely worried. Looking back to the screen, I saw why. The camera had zoomed in so that we could see our brother more clearly. He looked dead and for a moment I panicked.

His eyes were dull and stared straight ahead in front of him unblinking. In fact, he wasn't moving at all; I don't think he was even breathing. It was terrifying to look at. Turning to look at Splinter, I saw that he looked absolutely terrified, clearly he thought that he was looking at the body of his dead son. April looked scared as well, and Donnie was studying Leo's image intently as if he were solving a puzzle of some sort.

"Is he dead?" asked Sensei weakly.

The camera zoomed back to the High Kraang who began to talk about a gas and gel mixture which kept things in a kind of stasis. According to him, Leo had been in the goo unable to move, breathe, or even blink for the past three months, but he had been conscious the whole time. I didn't need to ask Donnie to know what kind of havoc that could wreak on someone's mind. By the time the Kraang was finished speaking, Sensei as well as everyone else in the room looked like they wished the Kraang had just killed Leo instead of subjecting him to this incredible torture. I knew that even if we managed to rescue Leo, he may not be the same.

A plan was beginning to form in my mind on how to rescue Leo, when the Kraang began to speak again.

"Don't trouble yourselves by coming and attempting to rescue your brother. Only we have the proper equipment for removing specimens from storage. Without it, your brother would die the moment you removed him. All we are asking in return for your brother is April O'Neil. She is still incredibly important to our plans, and who really means more to you- your brother that you grew up with and who loved you so much he was willing to die for you, or a girl you just met a year ago?" asked the Kraang. The way he called Leo a specimen made me extremely angry. The overgrown brain was beginning to talk again, but I cut him off.

"Look here you stupid Kraang. That _specimen_ is named Hamato Leonardo, and you will respect him. Secondly, we are not going to trade April for anyone; that would make Leo's sacrifice completely worthless. However, you can rest assured that we are coming for him, and when we do you will rue the day you ever crossed over into this dimension!" I spat angrily.

The Kraang simply laughed. "If that is what you wish, I guess I should have mentioned that we can take your brother out at any moment. If you really don't wish to trade with us, then you might as well watch your _dear_ brother's death. We'll contact you again soon, we have to prep him first. Remember that this is what you wanted," simpered the High Kraang with a disgusting, toothy smile. Then the video cut out.

Sensei's ears were laid back flat to his head and he looked to be fighting a great internal struggle. Mikey and Donnie were looking at me angrily for having taken matters into my own hands and making things ten times worse, but April had sat down on Donnie's stool and had her head in her hands. Donnie stopped glaring at me and walked over to her. He placed a comforting hand on her back.

"This is all my fault," she sobbed before looking up at our disbelieving faces.

"How can you say that? None of this is your fault," exclaimed Donnie.

"Yes it is," insisted April, "If I just let the Kraang take me, they never would have taken my dad, he wouldn't be a bat anymore, and they wouldn't be torturing Leo right now. You guys should hate me."

"No, April. Stop talking that way. You have no control over any of this," said Sensei. He sounded exhausted.

Mikey was standing silently in a corner.

"They're going to kill him," he said matter-of-factly.

We all stared at him, the realization just starting to hit home. I was furious with the Kraang. First, they took my older brother and threw this family into chaos. Then they torture said brother and lock him in a tub of goo. Now, just as my family beginning to heal they come through and drop a bomb. I am going to kill the High Kraang, but this time I'm going to make sure he's dead.

"They're going to kill him," repeated Mikey quietly.

"No they're not, and ya wanna know why?" I growled, pounding my fist against the table.

"Why?" sniffed April.

"Because we're going to go rescue him," I replied.

"But Raph, you heard what he said! We don't have the right equipment; even if we did rescue Leo, we'd end up killing him," exclaimed Donnie.

I glared at Donnie, and was about to yell at him when Sensei cut me off.

"Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and April," he said turning to look at each of us in turn, "We are going to get your brother back, and he is not going to die. We are not leaving him in that horrific place for a second longer," said Sensei with a steely look in his eyes. He looked fierce, but he also looked a little murderous. His calm manner had been replaced by anger; he was no longer the calm sensei we usually saw. We were now in the presence of the incredible Hamato Yoshi, the most skilled ninja in Japan, the only man who could face the Shredder and survive, and the man who had already lost one family. The Kraang had taken his son away from him, and now they were going to pay dearly.


	12. Chapter 11

**Hello Lovely Readers! So the turtles finally figured out what happened. I want to thank you all for your continued support, y'all are amazing! Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favorites. I hope you have a great day and enjoy the new chapter!**

It was chaos in the Lair. Everyone was running in every direction gathering supplies, training, and eating (though the latter was mostly Mikey). Donnie was running through the lab building and gathering first aid kits, code breakers, and various types of medical equipment to stabilize Leo when we found him. Master Splinter was training April and brushing up on his moves, and honestly it was terrifying. He was flipping and spinning, his cane flew in every direction imaginable. I had never even imagined that anyone could move that way, especially not our father.

April was practicing her moves, but she was spending a lot of time watching Splinter in awe. As for me, I had been helping Donnie gather information and monitoring the egg to watch if the Kraang tried to contact us again.

A loud crash sounded behind me, and I looked to see that Mikey had slammed into Donnie while riding on his skateboard. Scraps of metal and devices spilled out of the box Donnie had been carrying, and Mikey's skateboard slowly rolled away from the wreckage.

"MIIIIIIKEEEY!" screamed Donnie, as the angry Donnie made a brief reappearance.

Mikey ran and hid behind me before trying to redeem himself.

"I'm sorry, Don, I didn't see you. Here, let me help you," he said meekly, slowly making his way out from behind me.

"No, just go away. You've done enough harm already," said Donnie darkly. I knew tensions were running high with the mission so close at hand, but that didn't give Donnie the right to snap at Mikey.

"Hey, cut him some slack, Don. Everyone's a bit stressed right now, he didn't do it on purpose," I said calmly. Inwardly I was a little surprised. I had begun to sound more and more like Leo lately, and it was probably because I had to be the leader. I couldn't wait until Leo was back, not only because he was brother and best friend, but because I was beginning to realize that I didn't really want to be leader. It was too much responsibility, and I couldn't just be me. I always had to look out for my family, and it was exhausting.

"Why are you always siding with Mikey, Raph?" he just destroyed the only chance I had at opening the canister Leo is in safely! I was studying it during the Kraang's video. We won't be able to get him out without that device, and now it's gone," ranted Donnie.

I sighed. Although inwardly I was furious that Mikey had broken it, I knew that Donnie could probably fix it, and if I blew up at Mikey then he would just retreat back into the dark place he had just started to emerge from.

"Look, Donnie, I'm sure you can fix it-"I began tiredly, but Donnie cut me off.

"Do you care at all? Are you just so happy to have finally gotten what you wanted that you don't care if he comes home or not? You disgust me, Raph," hissed Donnie angrily as he began to pick up the pieces of his machine from the ground.

I felt as if I had been slapped. How could Donnie think that? I knew that Donnie probably didn't mean any of what he had just said; he was angry. I felt a sense of déjà vu, this is what I used to do to Leo. I needed smart, meek Donnie back; I couldn't handle this angry turtle that had taken his place. Next to me, Mikey was looking at Donnie in annoyance.

"What is wrong with you, Donnie? Grow up, will you? It was a stupid accident," muttered Mikey as he walked away to pick up his skateboard. As he bent to pick it off the ground, he tripped and fell, knocking over the stack of Space Heroes DVDs that had been sitting untouched by the TV for the past five months. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. We all just stood there staring at the cases as they lay across the floor. One had popped open, and a sticky note covered in Leo's messy handwriting was stuck to the inside cover. Quickly I walked over and plucked the note out of the case. I read it, my hands shaking slightly.

_Hey guys,_

_ Sorry I watched ahead and messed up this episode. I couldn't wait! I had to figure out whether or not Captain Ryan made it back from the alien fortress. Anyways, you guys were at 13:27 if you want to pick up where you left off. The guys had just figured out to how to break the Captain out of his prison cell. Good luck in your adventures!_

_ -Leo_

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I held them back. We were going to get our leader out of the alien fortress, and then we would come home and watch this episode, this extremely accurate episode, and laugh as if things were normal. I could see it playing out in my head: Mikey would be scarfing down pizza as he balanced precariously on the arm of the sofa while Donnie and I would be sitting on the couch with a huge bowl of popcorn. Leo would be sitting on the floor in front of us with a huge, stupid grin on his face. Every now and then he would turn around and look at us to see what we thought and make sure we were enjoying it. Sensei would be off meditating in the dojo, and April would come waltzing in half way through and plop down next to Donnie, much to the genius's delight. I could see it happening so clearly in my head; it felt like I was actually there.

Finally I looked up at Donnie with tears in my eyes.

"Read this shell-for-brains, and see if I really don't care about Leo coming home," I said angrily before storming out of the living room and into the dojo. Angrily, I grabbed my punching bag, hung it on its hook, and began to punch it with everything I had in me. All the rage, frustration, and confusion from the day came out in my punches, and it felt extremely good to just let it all go for a few minutes.

Finally, I was interrupted by my Sensei.

"Raphael, that is enough my son. We are preparing to leave, we don't need you to be exhausted," he said gently but sternly.

What? How were we already leaving, I had just begun my workout. I glanced at the clock and realized it had been an hour, not twenty minutes. Sighing deeply, I grabbed my Sais and made my way into the lab where we were all gathering to go over the plan of attack.

Donnie glanced up at me as I entered the room, and we briefly made eye contact. I knew in that moment that all was forgiven. Then Donnie bent back over the papers spread in front of him. Mikey was studying the papers in new serious Mikey fashion, and April was pointing to something on the map of the TCRI building and asking Donnie a question. Sensei walked in behind me, and we all took our seats around the table.

"Okay, so we're going to fly up to the roof of the building like we did last time before the Technodrome, and then rappel down the building until we reach the twentieth floor, then we're going to bust through the windows to the north wing. Guys, I need you to cover me while I remove Leo from the ooze. He's probably going to be really discombobulated and senses are going to be overwhelming after not having them for so long. Once I have him, I'm going to yell and then we need to get the shell out of there. It's going to be really dangerous, this place is swarming with Kraang. Now remember, even if you see the portal, a bottle of mutagen, or heck, even if you see the Shredder, do not go after them! We are going in for Leo, it's going to be a quick in and out," said Donnie quickly.

"We'll see about that. Plans never survive contact with the enemy," I reminded everyone, quoting something Leo used to say often. Sensei had taught him that, and I could see Splinter smiling at me out of the corner of my eye.

"Let's do this thing," said Mikey, "Booyakasha!"

With that, we rushed out of the Lair. We leapt across the rooftops, and despite the dread and nervousness sitting in each of us about facing the Kraang, there was a buzz of excitement in the air. We were bringing our brother home tonight! After months of guess work and speculation about his fate, we finally knew for certain where he was, and how we was, and now we were going to get him back. God help any Kraang that got in our way, because no one, _no one_, was going to stop us from taking our brother home.

The day dream I had earlier still lingered in the back of my mind, and the first thing I planned on doing with Leo was watching that episode of Space Heroes with him, even if it meant I had to borrow Donnie's laptop and watch it with him in the infirmary. Then we could just talk, and I was going to apologize for having been so awful to him, though he was probably going to blame himself for everything that had happened.

Finally we found ourselves facing the TCRI building from across the street. We were standing on the roof of a building that was slightly taller than TCRI, which made it much easier to glide down to the roof of the building using the winged backpacks Donnie had created. When we landed, we tucked the wings back inside their pouches before beginning to rappel down the building. After about five minutes of rope burns, terrifying winds, and close calls with Kraang security cameras, Donnie finally hissed, "Here!" and gestured towards the window in front of him.

We all sidled over to his window and looked through the glass. The room was teeming with Kraang, but there weren't nearly as many armed ones as we had expected. The High Kraang sat haughtily upon his pedestal, and was watching the creatures in the containers with contempt.

I began to feel angry, and a strong urge to bash some alien heads grew within me.

"Okay, on three you guys," said Donnie, "One, two-"

"THREE!" I finished as I burst through the glass. My brothers, April, and Sensei followed close behind me as we swung into the room. Every single Kraang swiveled to look at us in surprise, and we stared them down with equal disdain. Then one Kraang screeched in terror and all shell broke loose.

A Kraang in a hovercraft made its way towards a huge red button on the wall that was probably the equivalent of a panic button. It never made it there. I threw my sai and he fell, my weapon sticking out of its squishy head. I ran over to retrieve my weapon while slashing and hacking at anything that got in my way. I quickly grabbed my weapon and turned to survey the room.

Donnie was over by the canisters setting up his makeshift stabilizer while Mikey and April covered him, fending off attack after attack. A feeling of panic settled in my gut when I realized I couldn't see Sensei anywhere, but suddenly I spotted him. He was fighting the High Kraang with a passion I had never seen before, the High Kraang could barely land a punch on my father as dipped and twirled as gracefully as a ballerina but as a deadly as a viper.

I realized that the Kraang were probably going to find a way to call for reinforcements despite my guarding of the panic button, so I ran over to the doors and locked them from the inside. It probably wouldn't hold them for long, but it might buy us some time. Letting out a mighty roar, and I slashed through the crowd until I reached Donnie, April, and Mikey who were about to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. However, my presence helped to even the odds and the Kraang began to back off.

After a few minutes, there weren't many of them left. Mikey and I had gone after them with a vengeance and both of us were covered in a sticky blue substance that I guessed was Kraang blood. Splinter was still fighting off the High Kraang who was much more skilled than his former minions.

Bodies, some still stuck inside their hovercrafts, littered the floor, and I felt a weird twinge in my gut. A little voice in the back of my mind was whispering, _this wasn't a fight, this was a massacre. What have you done?_ But I decided to ignore it, and pushing my guilt to the side I walked up to Donnie while Mikey went to help my father with the nearly exhausted over grown brain.

Kneeling down next to Donnie, I studied the complicated contraption he was holding. It was silver and covered in knobs and buttons with a small screen at the top.

"What's that?" I asked him.

"A portable heart monitor, I need to keep a close eye on Leo when we take him out. There's a chance we could lose him," he explained. He had a look of extreme concentration on his face, so I decided to leave him to his thoughts and technical wizardry. Standing up slowly, I walked up close to the glass. I pressed both my hands against the glass over Leo's outstretched palms.

Looking into his dull, lifeless eyes I whispered, "Look, Leo, I don't know if you can hear me, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for being a first rate jerk. I'm sorry for letting them take you, and I want you to know that when we get you out, there's a Space Heroes marathon ready to go. I missed you, bro."

It could have been my imagination, but I could have sworn I saw a flicker of life in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. I turned away from the canister and saw that my father had the Kraang pressed up against a wall. I ran up to him just in time to hear him hiss through clenched teeth.

"My sons mean the world to me, and you took one away, and you're going to tell me how to save him if you want to see your home ever again,"


	13. Chapter 12

**Hello lovely readers! Wow, the response to the last chapter was amazing! Thank you to everyone for the reviews, follows, and favorites; it really means the world to me. Sorry for the long wait, I was laptop-less all weekend…. *gasp!* But I'm back now, so get ready for some action! Have a lovely day y'all :)**

How long have I been in here? Days? Months? Years? I'm so confused, nothing makes sense. My head is swimming and I can barely form a coherent thought anymore. I haven't been removed from the tank since the Kraang so gently shoved me in, and I have completely lost all sense of time.

I can slowly but surely feel my sanity slipping away, which scares me more than anything the Kraang could possibly do. I swear I heard Raph talking to me earlier, but that's impossible because I can't hear anything anymore. I've been watching the Kraang and trying to uncover their plan, but I haven't been able to piece anything together. The only one who actually pays attention to me is the High Kraang who likes to come over and tap on the glass just to spite me. The rest of the Kraang are actually extremely boring and don't do much. They're almost ordinary when they aren't trying to kill my brothers and I. They zoom around in their little hovercrafts and work, they have lunch breaks, occasionally I can see a little office romance going on, and honestly they're almost adorable.

Wait! Did I really just think that?! Gah, I'm just proving my own point. And now I'm babbling, great. I'm really losing it, this is it. If the Kraang ever take me out, I'll just be a raving lunatic. I'll also probably fall asleep, I haven't slept since they put me in here. For some reason I can't, and it most definitely is _not_ helping my sanity problem.

As my thoughts crashed around inside my head making no sense whatsoever, a blur of green caught my eye. After days- months? Years? - of only seeing gray, pink, and white, green was unexpected. I strained my eyes to try and see what was going on, but I couldn't make anything out. The Kraang were zooming around in complete panic, and a red and green blur was hacking away at them. Another green and purple blur was running towards me and the other canisters, and he was followed by a yellow and orange thing. _Another_ green blur, this one with orange thrown in, was twirling something around and knocking the Kraang around. The High Kraang appeared to be struggling with a weird brown creature.

I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Eventually there were no Kraang left except for the High Kraang who was still struggling against the brown creature, but now the green and orange one was trying to help the brown one. I felt a tugging at the back of my mind, I knew these creatures from somewhere. Now that the chaos had died down, the green and red one was coming closer, and I could get a better look at the green and purple one in front of my tank. It was a giant turtle-human cross wearing a purple mask! I assumed that's what the others were as well, all though the brown one looked different. The yellow and orange thing I had seen earlier was a person with fiery red hair wearing a yellow t-shirt. She was helping the turtle with some weird silver device. He kept looking up at me worriedly.

The green and red one was now standing over the purple one, and they were talking about something. I still couldn't hear a word. The red one looked at me, glanced back down at the purple turtle who had gone back to messing with the machine, and then back to me before walking over to my tank and placing his hands over the spot mine were suspended in the goo. I realized in shock that we had the same hands. I'm a turtle?

I really don't remember much from before the goo. I don't know my name; I don't know how old I am; I don't know where I come from; and, apparently, I don't even know my own species. Maybe since these turtles are like me, they plan on helping me. I'm not sure about the brown thing though. He's still too far away to see clearly, and he's talking with my tormentor, the High Kraang.

The red turtle was talking to me, and I couldn't understand what he was saying. However, there was a look of remorse and- love? - in his eyes, and I found myself immediately trusting him. Whatever he was going to do, it wouldn't hurt me. A thought hit me quite suddenly, one name, Raphael. The name was followed by two words: brother and protect. After that, I had nothing. I went back to being the half-dead, crazy turtle I had been before. Had the thought been a strange figment of my imagination or were they memories?

I could remember some things, they helped me hold on to what little sanity I had left. I remember a feeling of warmth and happiness inside some underground bunker, and I remember that I had a family; I just don't remember who they were or what happened to them which makes me sad. I hope they're all right wherever they are. I worry that the Kraang got them and that's how they got me, which is another thing I remember. I remember the Kraang tortured me, and that they were the ones that put me in this tank. That is really all I could remember until now.

If I really am remembering something, then that would mean that the red turtle, Raphael, is my brother. He's my family! Maybe the other turtles are my family too! Did they escape from the Kraang, or did the Kraang never have them? So many questions are running through my mind, and I almost didn't notice as Raphael ran away towards the brown thing.

_Master Splinter. Father._

Where did that come from? My father… my father is the brown thing, but he's not a turtle. I'm extremely confused, yet I am also extremely worried. I don't want the Kraang to burst into the room and capture and hurt my family. Something is tugging at the back of my mind, but I can't reach it. It's something important though. Something about the Kraang.

Suddenly, the brown creature, Master Splinter apparently, began walking towards my tank, High Kraang in tow. Raphael and the orange one followed him. Master Splinter said something to the Kraang who sneered and waved a tentacle angrily. This resulted in a strong whack to the head from Master Splinter's walking stick. I decided I liked him.

Master Splinter walked up to the tank and studied me closely while the purple one, the orange one, Raphael, the girl, and the High Kraang began to talk to each other. Master Splinter's eyes were full of sadness as he looked into mine, and he seemed to be whispering something. He bowed his head before glancing up to meet my fixed gaze and turn back around to face the turtles, human, and Kraang.

They were all crowded around the purple one and the girl, and the High Kraang was saying something and fiddling with a silver device. They sat there working for a long time, but eventually the Kraang came over and pointed a tentacle at a well hidden button at the base of the tank. Raphael ran to the tank and pressed the button, and much to my surprise the glass in front of me slid away leaving a layer of goo between me and freedom. The purple one handed the silver device to the High Kraang, and he inserted it into the goo. The main console lit up and began to emit a steady beep. I guess that since the device was in the goo, the sound was able to reach me.

All the turtles, Master Splinter, and the girl seemed to sigh in relief, though I didn't know why. I wondered why the beep was important, but I didn't have much time to dwell on the beep though, because almost immediately after the beep started, the High Kraang produced a glowing, metal stick. The purple turtle's eyes grew large in shock, and he started to step forward as if he were going to take it from the High Kraang, but he said something and the turtle backed off. The High Kraang inched closer and closer to the tank until he was hovering face to face with me. He sneered, looked me over, and suddenly thrust the stick through the goo and into my outstretched hand.

The shock of actually feeling something again almost cancelled out the pain from the stick. However, the waves of pain coursing through my body were excruciating, and I couldn't ignore them. Finally, the Kraang removed the stick and turned to pick up what looked like a giant pair of tongs.

As I watched him, I noticed a faint thumping in my chest. I began to panic, what was that? What was moving inside me?! Almost immediately afterwards, my chest started to burn. Suddenly the realization hit me that the thumping was my heart, and the burning was my lungs begging for air. I was alive again, but it wouldn't last long if they didn't take me out of the goo soon. A sharp pain in my side brought back the memories of being tortured by the Kraang, and a single memory of running from them and being shot. I was extremely confused and discombobulated, my memories were coming back far more quickly than they ever had before, and it left me feeling helpless and dazed.

I was starting to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen, but just as I surrendered myself to the inviting darkness, I felt a slight pinching on my sides. My last thought before losing consciousness was _they're taking me out. _

Voices floated around me, it was the first time I had heard real voices in a long, long time. They were familiar, but I didn't recognize them. I was still floating through the darkness, fighting to stay asleep. I didn't want to wake up; I had been awake for far too long.

"Hey, Leo. Wake up, bro. Please wake up, you've been gone for so long and now you're finally home, but not really. Mikey thinks you're not going to wake up, and Master Splinter is scared, all though he wouldn't dare admit it to us. Donnie is trying his best to keep you comfortable, but if he's beating himself up, he thinks it's his fault you're still asleep. As for me, I just want my brother back. I haven't started watching the Space Heroes episode yet, I was waiting for you. You know you want to finish it. Come on bro, wake up please," someone was pleading. The voice was so familiar, I felt like I should know whose it was, but I didn't. I was extremely confused, who was Mikey? Who was Donnie? Who was Leo? I had so many questions, but I realized that they could only be answered if I woke up. I began to struggle against the darkness, but it pulled me back into its embrace and I knew no more.

"Hey buddy. It's Donnie," came another voice. I didn't know how long it had been since the last one, but I knew it wasn't the same speaker. This voice was sadder, but familiar as well. 'Donnie' continued to speak, "It's hard to see you like this. Raph is really mad, I'm worried that he's going to do something stupid. It's been months of trying to find you, months of not knowing whether you were alive or dead, we finally find you, and still you're gone. I don't know where you are, bro, but it's not here. Come back to us please. We need you, Leo."

There was a shuffling noise as if Donnie was walking away. Was I Leo, or were these visitors talking to someone else? Why had they been trying to find me? Whoever this Leo guy was, his family really missed him. His brothers really missed him. I should wake up and try to find him, but sleep is nice after being awake for so long. A little more rest can't hurt.

"Leo! I'm so glad to see you, bro. It's been a while, it was hard to look at you all sick in bed, but you're looking much better now. Donnie fixed up the hole in your plastron and all your other wounds from the Kraang. Honestly, you look great and you're all better so get up already! I miss you. Everyone does. The Lair isn't the same without you. Please wake up, I need my big brother back," murmured a childish, yet serious voice. It was so familiar, why couldn't I remember where I had heard these voices before? This Leo guy really needed to wake up, I just wanted to sleep and all his brothers kept barging in and bothering me. I sighed and fell back into the darkness with a feeling of peace.

"Leonardo, my son, wake up. I am so sorry that I allowed this to happen to you, and I understand if you are angry, but you must return to us now. I still cannot find you, I have tried to reach out to you in the spirit realm, but it is as if you were never there. Come back to us. Your brothers need you, and I need you. You are my eldest son, I need you to come back to me," whispered a sad, old voice. It was accompanied by a comforting furry thing resting on my hand. He sat there for a while talking, and he kept asking the Leo guy to wake up.

Finally, the voice left, and I was on my own. I considered going back to sleep, but I didn't want to anymore. I found myself wanting to wake up, if only for long enough to knock some sense into Leo so I could rest in peace. I struggled against the inky strands of sleep trying to pull me under, but I fought them and slowly found myself awake. I opened my eyes cautiously and looked around. I was lying in some sort of laboratory.

Pieces of medical equipment, scraps of metal, and a canister of glowing green muck were scattered across a desk with a computer. I looked down and found myself lying on a white cot, a threadbare blanket was draped across me, and a tube filled with fluids was inserted into my arm. Following the tube, I found that it was attached to a bag filled with the same fluid. Next to the bag was a screen with a series of lines across it. A beep was emitted from the machine every time one of the lines hit a peak. It was extremely slow.

I moved my head back around to look on the other side of the bed when I stopped. I could move. I. could. Move. It was the best feeling in the world and I began to wiggle my toes and fingers, shake my head, and kick my legs. I began to laugh because I could move, I could make sounds, and I could fall asleep or be awake voluntarily. I was alive! I let out a loud yell, I wanted to celebrate, but the door to the lab was thrown open and the three turtles, the rat, and the girl practically flew into the room.

Every single one of them looked terrified, but when they saw me sitting up on the bed looking at them, they stopped dead in their tracks. Their expressions morphed from terror, to shock, and finally relief and joy. Finally the red one ran at me full force and pulled me into a hug.

"LEO! Don't ever do this to me again, do you hear me?! Don't _ever_ scare me like that again," he sobbed into my shoulder. He pulled away and looked me over while I looked at him in confusion.

"Leo, are you all right, bro? Do you need anything? Leo?" he asked worriedly.

"Who's Leo?" I asked quietly.


	14. Chapter 13

**Hello Lovely Readers! Aren't I evil? The response, again, from the last chapter was great! Y'all are the best! Thank you so much for all the support. This is going way better than I ever imagined. Have a fantastic day, and enjoy the new chapter.**

The High Kraang cackled at my father with a sickening grin.

"Help your _son_? I think I'd rather not," he barked.

My blood boiled. This dirty little piece of-

"Oh, I think you will help!" snarled Sensei, interrupting my thoughts.

"Why?" replied the overgrown brain.

"Because if you don't I will kill you," stated Sensei firmly.

His statement had the desired effect on the High Kraang. He was sleazy and selfish, and a direct threat on his precious life spurred him into action.

"Fine, I'll help," he muttered.

"Good! Follow me. Don't try anything or I'll kill you," said Sensei brightly as they marched across the floor towards the tank.

It took all of my willpower not to burst out laughing. Mikey and I shared a look once Sensei had passed, and he was flat out confused.

"What just happened?" asked Mikey.

"We just got ourselves a ticked to Leoville," I replied before turning to follow my Sensei.

As I approached, I heard the High Kraang mutter something about being 'reduced to help stupid scum stuck in tanks'. Sensei merely turned to him and whapped him over the head with his walking stick like the crazy monkey from the lion movie Mikey had forced me to watch with him.

Donnie was still fiddling with the heart monitor, and the Kraang was hovering next to him discussing the process of removing Leo. Meanwhile, Master Splinter had walked up to the tank and was staring at Leo intently. His ears lay flat to his head, and his shoulders stooped in defeat for a moment. An air of sadness radiated from him, but as soon as he turned away from his eldest son, he was all business.

The Kraang was now holding Donnie's heart monitor, but he had modified it somehow.

"What did he do to it?" I asked Donnie, refusing to speak to the Kraang.

"He amplified the sound system to that we would be able to hear it through the goo. He also changed the inner mechanisms so that it would be able to read Leo's vitals without touching him. It'll beep continuously once it's in there to signify that he is alive. If it doesn't beep…" Donnie trailed off with a pained expression on his face.

"It'll beep," I assured him, laying a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me gratefully while Mikey stared straight at the tank in deep concentration. I missed my little brother, I hoped he would come back when we brought Leo home.

"Will someone get over here and open this infernal tank? The button is right there," growled the Kraang in annoyance. I grit my teeth and ran over to where the Kraang was in front of my brother's prison. The Kraang waved a tentacle towards the well-hidden button at the base of the tank. I reached over and stomped on it, all the while wishing I could cut the stupid tentacles off the disgusting creature.

The glass at the front of the tank slid open, and miraculously the goo stayed in place. It held its form perfectly. Leo was so close to me now that I could touch him if I wanted to, but I knew that would be a disaster. The Kraang thrust the monitor into the goo unceremoniously, grimacing all the while.

We all waited with baited breath for the proof from the monitor that our brother was alive, and for one horrific second there was silence. Master Splinter shut his eyes to hide his despair, and I was about to run over and kill the Kraang with my bare hands when a steady beep filled the room. Mikey let out a shaky, relieved breath, Splinter sighed in relief, I grinned, April hugged Donnie who sat there in utter shock staring at the monitor as if he could kiss it. Then the Kraang pressed a button on the side of his hover craft and produced an enormous metal stick. One press of a button and it began to glow and crackle with the characteristic sound of electricity. Donnie stepped forward in alarm, but the Kraang held up a tentacle.

"This will shock your brother with a type of Kraang modified electricity that causes no harm. It merely kick starts the body with any dosage given. Completely safe," he said as he thrust into my brother's outstretched hand, "However, it will hurt. A lot," he added with a wicked grin.

I fought my rising rage by reminding myself that this disgusting creature was the only way I could save my brother. I flicker of life sparked in his eyes, but this time it stayed there. He was alive! Really alive! The Kraang was fumbling with another compartment of his hovercraft. The whole time, I watched in equal parts horror in shock as I watched the expression in Leo's eyes go from surprise, to relief, to confusion, and finally panic before the light began to fade from them. The heart monitor which had begun beeping steadily after we had restarted Leo's heart was beginning to beep irregularly. My brother was dying before my eyes, and I was unable to help him.

"Get him out of there!" screamed Mikey.

The Kraang cast a withering glance at him before whipping out a pair of tongs from the side compartment. They were made of a weird kind of metal, and glancing at Donnie for and explanation, I found out what they were made of from an uncharacteristically terse Donnie.

"They're made of a type of special metal alloy found only in Dimension X. It's the only type of metal that can come in contact with organic matter while it's inside the goo."

Turning back to the tank, I saw the Kraang push the ridiculously large tongs inside the goo and pinch our brother around the torso to pull him out. I winced, the tongs were pinching him right over his gunshot wound. The Kraang pulled viciously, but was clearly struggling. I ran over, grabbed the back of his hover craft in disgust, and pulled.

Master Splinter caught onto the idea, and grabbed the back of my shell to help. With a sickening slurping sound, Leo slid free of the goo and crashed to the floor. He didn't even move.

"LEO!" I yelled as Master Splinter cried, "My son!"

We both ran to him at breakneck speed as the High Kraang cackled and tried to get to the door. Mikey saw him and smacked him over the head with a nun chuck- the Kraang's usefulness had expired. Looking towards the doors leading to the rest of the TCRI building, I saw hundreds of armed Kraang droids on the other side of the door. This had indeed been a trap, but we had evaded it by striking when they least expected.

I turned back to my brother. Master Splinter was cradling Leo's head in his lap and murmuring softly in Japanese. I knelt down next to him and held his hand. It was extremely cold. Desperately, I searched for a pulse, but I couldn't find one.

"Donnie! Something's wrong!" I called as Donnie struggled to pull Mikey away from the High Kraang. Donnie looked up in alarm and hurried over, pulling Mikey behind him with a surprising amount of strength.

"What is it?" he said nervously, staring at our brother in complete awe. He couldn't believe that he was actually looking at his big brother again.

"I can't find a pulse, and his breathing is shallow," I said nervously.

Donnie visibly paled and reached over to feel Leo's pulse. He sighed in relief before glancing back to all of us who were watching nervously.

"He has a pulse. It's weak, but it's there. We need to get him home," said Donnie quickly.

"I'll carry him. Lead the way my sons," murmured Splinter. He looked down at Leo's unconscious figure with equal parts relief and worry.

We leaped out the broken window and spread the wings of the flying devices Donnie had built. I flew past Mikey and April until I was next to Donnie. The extra flying pack we had brought for Leo dangled uselessly beneath him.

"Donnie?"

"Ya, Raph?"

"Why isn't Leo awake?" I asked nervously. I was a bit afraid of what the answer might be.

"I don't know," he sighed, "but my best guess is he is exhausted. If what the Kraang said is true, then he hasn't slept in months. He'll probably sleep for a couple of hours, but then we'll have our Leo back."

Satisfied with the answer, we flew the rest of the way to the Lair in silence. Everyone was either too shocked or exhausted from the long night to talk. Just as the sun began to peak over the New York City skyline, we touched down at the manhole cover closest to the Lair and went inside.

Once in the sewers, we ran as fast as possible back to the Lair. Leo's breathing was growing more and more unsteady as the minutes passed, and Master Splinter was in a near panic thinking that his eldest son was about to die in his arms. We rushed Leo into the lab, and Donnie practically tore Leo out of Sensei's arms and put him on the bed. Immediately he hooked up to a heart monitor next to the bed and strapped an oxygen mask onto his face. He quickly began to look over Leo's injuries to see what needed to be tended to first.

He grimaced when he examined the gunshot wound in Leo's side. The gaping hole was clearly infected, and it was still oozing blood. Scars riddled his body, and there was a crack in his carapace that needed tending to. His right hand had a long, deep cut, and his left ankle appeared to be broken. After some more poking and prodding and x-rays, Donnie concluded that Leo had three broken ribs as well, and his lungs were scarred from whatever chemicals he had been forced to breathe. He shooed us all out of the lab, with the exception of Master Splinter who stayed behind to help. He said he would give us an update as soon as he could.

Four nerve-wracking hours later, Master Splinter and Donnie emerged from the lab looking exhausted.

"How is he?" I asked right away.

"He is…stable," said Sensei carefully.

"Stable?" I replied.

"We'll explain more in a second, but first, where's Mikey?" asked Donnie.

"I sent him to bed, he was exhausted. Why what's wrong?" I said growing more worried by the second.

"Come into the lab, my son," intoned Sensei.

A feeling of dread settled into my gut as I walked towards the lab. Was Leo dead? Was he seriously hurt? What was wrong? I began to grow angry. Leo couldn't die on me, we had just rescued him! He didn't get to check out and leave me in charge. He wasn't allowed to.

I trudged into the lab and gasped when I saw my brother lying on the bed. He was covered in bandages, casts, and had stitches in many places. The oxygen mask was still strapped to his face, and an IV had been inserted into his arm. He looked awful. I glanced at the heart monitor. Leo still had a heartbeat, and he was still breathing, so what was the problem?

"What's the problem?" I asked hesitantly.

"I did a brain scan on Leo, and he's… well he's…," Donnie was struggling for words.

"He's in a coma. We don't know how long it will be until he wakes up, the best we can do now is keep him comfortable and make sure his wounds heal," said Sensei forlornly.

I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I had finally gotten my brother back, and then he left us again except this time I knew where he was. I knew what was happening to him, and it was almost worse.

"I'll take first watch," I said immediately, knowing that someone would have to constantly monitor him. Donnie started to protest, but I cut him off.

"You're exhausted, Don. Get some rest," I said.

Sensei gave me a silent 'thank you', and left the lab. Donnie gave me a run through on what to do with the equipment should anything happen, and left. I settled into the seat next to him and sat in silence. I didn't want to talk to him that would be too much like asking him to wake up and he needed the sleep.

Three weeks later I found myself sitting in the same place yet again. He had been asleep for three weeks. That had to be a world record. I wanted, no I _needed_, my brother back. I needed him to wake up, so I did something I had told myself I would never do. I started talking to my brother.

"Hey, Leo. Wake up, bro. Please wake up, you've been gone for so long and now you're finally home, but not really. Mikey thinks you're not going to wake up, and Master Splinter is scared, all though he wouldn't dare admit it to us. Donnie is trying his best to keep you comfortable, but if he's beating himself up, he thinks it's his fault you're still asleep. As for me, I just want my brother back. I haven't started watching the Space Heroes episode yet, I was waiting for you. You know you want to finish it. Come on bro, wake up please," I begged. I sat there for a while longer, waiting for a response, but none came. I looked up at the monitor and noticed in surprise that brain activity increased when I had talked to him, but it had quickly decreased again when I stopped.

"Donnie!" I called, "Come in here, quick!"

Donnie came flying into the lab at break neck speed.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he said, running to the monitors to check his vitals.

"Nothing's wrong, Don. I started talking to him, and his brain activity increased! That's good right?" I asked excitedly.

"That's amazing! I'll try next when it's my turn to see if there's a similar response. Why wouldn't he respond to our voices now, though?" mused Donnie.

"I don't know. Maybe it has to be one on one, just us and him," I suggested.

"Maybe… Well, I'll try in a little bit. We don't want to wear him out," said Donnie as he left the lab.

About half an hour later it was Donnie's shift. He went inside, and I could just barely hear his voice over the whirring of the machines.

"Hey buddy. It's Donnie," came another voice. I didn't know how long it had been since the last one, but I knew it wasn't the same speaker. This voice was sadder, but familiar as well. 'Donnie' continued to speak, "It's hard to see you like this. Raph is really mad, I'm worried that he's going to do something stupid. It's been months of trying to find you, months of not knowing whether you were alive or dead, we finally find you, and still you're gone. I don't know where you are, bro, but it's not here. Come back to us please. We need you, Leo."

I choked up hearing Donnie talk to Leo. It was a side of the genius that I hadn't heard in forever. Donnie was always irritable or in doctor mode these days. We rarely got to see the gentle giant I missed so much.

After a few hours, it was Mikey's shift. Mikey hadn't seen Leo in a while, it had been extremely hard for him. However, after we told him what we had discovered, he insisted on taking a shift. I decided not to listen in on Mikey, he deserved some privacy with Leo.

Later that evening, Master Splinter took his shift. It was a little after dinner time, and we were all watching a movie on the couch. April had come over, and she was nestled in next to Donnie. The movie was a cheesy horror flic about aliens that Mikey had picked out. The effects were awful, and we were having a fun time laughing at them. Everything was almost normal, and I half expected to find myself in my day dream with Leo sitting safe and sound on the floor in front of me, but he wasn't there.

Suddenly we heard a loud yell from the lab. I don't think any of us had ever moved so quickly on our lives. A million questions swam through my head, but my main concern was whether or not I had just heard Leo die. It was possible.

Much to my astonishment, when we burst through the lab doors we found Leo sitting up in bed, wide awake, and smiling. We all just stared at him in shock for a moment while he stared back at us in confusion. After a moment, I pushed Mikey out of the way and ran to Leo. I wrapped him in a hug and sobbed into his shoulder, letting out all the pain and frustration from the last six months. I had my brother back. He was back!

"LEO! Don't ever do this to me again, do you hear me?! Don't _ever_ scare me like that again," I sobbed.

He sat there in silence, and I pulled away to look at him. He seemed all right, but something was wrong.

"Leo, are you all right, bro? Do you need anything? Leo?" I asked worriedly. He was giving me a blank stare, and it was making me nervous. He glanced around before finally looking back to me in confusion.

"Who's Leo?" he asked softly, and I felt my world shatter around me. My brother, my big brother and best friend, didn't know who he was. I looked at him in horror.

"Do you know who I am?" asked Donnie nervously behind me. My family had closed in around the bed, and everyone looked absolutely horrified.

"No, should I?" said Leo, shaking his head. Donnie's eyes widened, and the hurt in them almost brought me to tears.

"Do you know who _I_ am?" asked Mikey hesitantly.

Again, Leo shook his head no. I was too afraid to ask if he remembered me. I ran out of the room. My family found me later in a fetal position on Leo's bed, holding his mask to my chest.

"I want my brother back," I whispered as Sensei held me in his arms.


	15. Chapter 14

**Hello lovely readers! Sooooo… Leo can't remember a thing, well, except for Master Splinter and Raph. Thank you so much for all the support, again! You guys are AMAZING! Enjoy the new chapter, and have a great day!**

Master Splinter sat on my bed next to me.

"Raphael, my son, you need to face your fear. You have to go talk to your brother," he said slowly.

"What's the point? He doesn't remember anyone!" I grumbled. It had been two days since Leo woke up, and I had been avoiding him ever since he told us that he didn't remember us.

"Stop that! How is he possibly going to begin to remember if you hide from him? He remembers me, barely," commented Sensei sadly.

I could see how much pain this was causing him, but I decided that I had to be strong for my family. I couldn't hide up here anymore, no matter how much I wanted to. I stood up to leave.

"You're right, Sensei. I have to try," I sighed as I walked out the door.

Slowly I made my way towards the living room where Leo was sitting staring at the blank television screen. Dread filled me with each step I took, until finally I reached my brother and the feeling had turned to anger. He turned to look at me with confused, haunted eyes. I wanted to turn around and run. The last time those eyes had looked at me, I had lost my brother. Now the eyes were looking at me again, but this time my brother was already gone. The fire that had always been in his eyes, the drive that I had always so admired, was gone.

He looked up at me questioningly. I tore my gaze away from his vacant stare and stared at the floor. His scarred, pale feet were in stark contrast with mine. It bothered me. Everything about him bothered me now, and it hurt. He and I, despite our many fights, had always been close. He was my only big brother, and my best friend, and now I could barely stand to be in the same room with him. I clenched my teeth in anger, I couldn't stand this.

"Ra… Raph… Raphael? Right?" asked Leo tentatively.

I nearly fell over. He remembered _me_? He was calling me by my full name though, something he hadn't done in a long time.

"What?" I asked in surprise.

"That's your name, right? Raphael? You're my….," he scrunched up his face in concentration, "brother! You're my brother!" he exclaimed triumphantly.

"That's… that's right," I stammered. I was more than surprised; I was shocked, "Usually you call me 'Raph' though. Do you remember Donnie and Mikey and April too?" I asked in excitement.

"No," he said sadly, "They've introduced themselves, and we've hung out a little bit, but I don't remember them at all. I'm sorry, but I barely even remember you and Sensei. I only remember your names and that he's my father and you're my brother. I also remember that I'm supposed to protect you, not just you, all of you."

I blinked back tears. He was hurt, missing his memory, and horribly confused, but he wanted to protect them. What would he even be protecting them from? There was nothing for him to do; it was our turn to take care of him.

"Stop, it's our turn to take care of you!" I snapped.

His face fell, and I realized that he thought I was angry at him, which I was, but this Leo wasn't used to it.

"I'm sorry," he said sadly. He stood up and began to walk towards the lab, towards Donnie who had been nothing but supportive and kind to Leo. I felt guilty, no wonder Leo kept hiding in there; he felt safest around Donnie. He wasn't even spending time with Master Splinter. Mikey had desperately been trying to spend time with Leo, but he was a little much for our dazed brother.

"Leo, wait!" I cried.

He stopped and turned around to look at me. He seemed even more confused than he had a few seconds ago. I wanted to kick myself; I kept forgetting that this was no longer my strong older brother, this was a broken, terrified ghost of my brother. He had to be treated with care.

"I didn't mean that. I'm short tempered," I tried to explain. It was bizarre to be explaining my personality and behavior to someone who had grown up with me and knew me better than anyone. It felt wrong.

"I didn't know that. Wait…" he trailed off and shut his eyes in concentration. His entire face scrunched up, and he looked frustrated before suddenly turning into a mask of pleasure. His eyes popped open, and he looked at me triumphantly.

"I just remembered! Mikey's the goofball youngest; Donnie is the smart one; and, you're the leader!" he cried happily. "What do I do, then?"

I stared at him as if he had just grown a second head. He was incredibly proud of himself, yet he was wrong. He was happy, and I didn't want to ruin that by correcting him, but he needed to know.

"No, Leo. You're the leader. I'm the protector. Donnie is the genius. Mikey gives us hope. Master Splinter is our father and teacher, and April is our sister," I said gently.

His face fell. "I'm the leader?"

"Ya!" I encouraged, silently begging whoever had created this hell for me to fix one thing and let him remember. Apparently, they weren't listening, because the next words out of his mouth nearly killed me.

"But I'm useless," he protested.

I glared at him angrily.

"Follow me," I growled, turning on my heel quickly and storming out of the living room to my room.

I glanced behind me to make sure he was following and continued walk into my room. I had about two seconds before he walked into the mess that I called my room. I felt slightly embarrassed as I envisioned the neat and orderly room he had.

Comic books, turtle food for Spike, weapons, sweaty towels, and randomly two punching bags were scattered slovenly about the room. My bed was unmade, and the blankets were bunched up at the end. Sensei had left a while ago, but he had opened the drawer of the table next to my bed and removed my journal. He knew it was there, and he knew what I planned to do. It felt good to finally have his approval in something.

I walked over to the bed, picked up my journal, and sat down. I patted the empty space next to me and beckoned for Leo to come. He carefully picked his way across the floor before sitting down rigidly on the edge of my bed. He was clearly uncomfortable, which made me sad because we used to spend tons of time in here together. Countless afternoons were spent playing in here when we were little, and he had used to come in here often before 'that mission'.

"Look, Leo, you're anything but useless. Don't you remember anything about who you are? One of my nick names for you is Fearless. Does that sound like the name of someone who is _useless_?" I said, my voice heavy with grief and thinly veiled frustration.

He looked at me blankly before replying, "Raphael, I didn't know my name. I didn't know what was happening to me. Heck, I didn't even know I was a _turtle!_" His eyes widened as he realized what he had just told me.

"You didn't tell me that," I said, my voice breaking. It was then that I realized that my Leo might be buried in there somewhere, but this wasn't him. I didn't know who this was, but it wasn't the ghost of my brother as I had previously thought. No, this was a stranger.

"I didn't want anyone to know that. I was scared, I still am, and I'm confused. I don't know why I'm telling you this, you're not supposed to know. You'll worry," he said firmly. For one second, my Leo appeared. I saw him; I knew it was him. My brother was back for an instant, he was trying to protect me, like always, from his hurt. As quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared again and I was left with the stranger.

"Here, ya know what, I was going to have this big ol' speech and tell you how glad I was to have you back and apologize and stuff, but you're not him, so I'm not going to tell you any of that stuff. I want you to read this. It's my journal. Recently I was just recounting everything Donnie, Mikey, and I had been doing so he wouldn't feel bad for not being here, but before that it was just my journal. I want you to read it, maybe then you'll realize that you're not useless, Leo. Then maybe he'll come back. I don't who you are, but right now, you're not my brother. Go," I said angrily, shoving the journal into his hands.

He looked at me in surprise, but also in pain. He was wearing an expression similar to that of a kicked puppy. Taking one last glance at me, he fled the room with the journal held tightly to his chest. I saw a tear slide down his cheek, and instantly felt guilty. I kept messing up! Leo had finally remembered something, but what had I done? I had gone and made him feel bad. He didn't deserve that, and I shouldn't have told him that he wasn't my brother, even if it was true.

I sat in my room for a few hours just staring at the ceiling before a knock on the door jolted me from my thoughts.

"Come in," I said in a rough voice, I hadn't realized that I'd been crying. I quickly wiped my eyes, and sat up to greet the visitor.

"Dinner is almost ready, Raph," said Mikey, peeking around the door.

I smiled sadly. At least some things were returning to normal. Mikey hadn't cooked at all while Leo was missing, and as much as I loved pizza and cereal, eating only those foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for six months had been horrible. I was glad he was cooking again, and I think he was too.

"All right, buddy, I'll be right there," I said casually. I had to put on my strong big brother face for Mikey and Donnie now more than ever because I knew they were silently wondering whether or not they would ever get their other brother back. I couldn't let them think I was upset or hurt, or they would flip out.

I had a better understanding of why Leo was always hiding his pain and feelings from us. Despite the fact that it annoyed us, it was really for our benefit. I added that to my mental list of things to talk to Leo about when he came back to us.

Slowly I stood up, fed Spike, and headed out to the kitchen to grab dinner. When I stepped into the kitchen, I reached into a cabinet, pulled down a plate, and walked over to where Mikey was distributing pasta out of a large pot. He slopped some pasta onto my plate, dumped marinara sauce on it, and directed me over to a tray further down the counter to load up on meatballs. Donnie was ahead of me, and he made a beeline to the TV in the living room to eat his dinner. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to follow him. The two of us were the first to sit down, and Donnie lunged for the remote before I had a chance to reach for it.

"What are you doing?" I asked incredulously.

"I have an idea. If we watch Space Heroes and act like it's a completely normal night, maybe Leo will loosen up a bit and regain some memories," muttered Donnie as he flipped through the channels.

"How exactly would that work?" I asked.

Donnie gave me an annoyed look before delving into his tech talk, "Well, he might have made associations in his brain with Space Heroes in real life. The story line has surprisingly similar scenarios to what we go through, and I'm sure Leo noticed that. His brain might have made a connection with the show, and certain memories may be linked to it."

I cringed at Donnie's use of the past tense with Leo. I was about to respond when Leo made his way into the living room. We both fell silent and watched him carefully. He didn't seem to notice. He glanced around the room looking completely lost before starting to make his way to the couch. My heart sank as I realized that he wouldn't be sitting in his usual spot. I shared a look with Donnie, and I knew he was thinking the same thing.

Leo sat down on the couch next to Donnie silently. He squirmed a little before growing frustrated and getting up to sit on the arm of the couch. He wasn't comfortable there either. Finally, he stood up again and surveyed the room until his eyes alighted on the spot on the floor in front of the couch where he usually sat. A flicker of hope kindled in my heart as he walked over to the spot and sat down on the floor with his plate of spaghetti next to him. He sighed contentedly and began to eat his dinner.

The flicker of hope turned into a flame, and I glanced at Donnie who was looking at him in shock. Master Splinter walked out to join us, I guessed Donnie had explained his idea to him earlier. Sensei did a double take when he saw Leo before smiling and continuing to the seldom used chair reserved solely for Master Splinter. April sat down in her usual spot next to Donnie, and Mikey came flying out of the kitchen just as the familiar Space Heroes theme song began to play.

I watched Leo intently for his reaction, but he didn't seem to be showing any signs of recognition. About half way through the show, I noticed that Leo's dinner sat unfinished and forgotten in his lap as he sat riveted. I smirked, that was so like him.

"Let's go fight those aliens!" cried a red lobster looking thing on the screen.

"But Rappal, the captain can't remember who he is or how to fight!" protested an orange alien.

"He'll remember in time, don't worry," said a purple alien as Captain Ryan walked in wearing a blue shirt.

"Hello crew. I know I don't remember much, but I do know how to drive this ship. Let's go get those aliens!" he cried strongly.

Donnie and I shared another look. This show was creepily similar to our lives. Today, they hadn't only gotten the scenario similar- the colors and personalities matched! I shook my head in disbelief and gave a small chuckle as I turned to resume watching the show. When it was finally over, we all stood up to go to bed except for Leo. He was staring at the blank television screen intently.

"Leo, are you okay?" asked Donnie, gently laying a hand on Leo's shoulder.

He flinched and pulled away, but then looked at Donnie in embarrassment.

"Ya, I'm fine. That show is just super amazing! Now I know why I had all that stuff for it around my room," he said with a laugh.

"Leo, you've seen every episode of that show, did you really not remember it?" asked Mikey in shock.

"Not a bit," said Leo shaking his head vigorously.

"Time for bed, my sons. We have training in the morning," interrupted Sensei as Mikey opened his mouth to respond to Leo.

Yawning, we all went our separate ways. Around two in the morning I woken up by a loud screaming coming from somewhere in the Lair. At first I thought it was just a dream, but as the screaming continued, my groggy brain suddenly jolted awake. I knew that scream. I knew who was screaming, and I knew what type of scream that was. One of my brothers was in pain. Leaping out of bed with my Sais in hand, I ran across the Lair until I was at the lab.

"Donnie!" I screamed, but the screaming didn't stop.


	16. Chapter 15

**Hello lovely readers! Sorry about the long update time, I've been a little busy. Again, I cannot begin to thank y'all enough for all the support, comments, follows, and favs I've been getting, it's incredible! I've decided the Hamato clan has been through enough these past few weeks and need a break. Sorry if you hate me for this, but prepare for some fluff. I promise though, it won't be **_**all **_**fluff, there will be some action! Thank you so much you guys, and enjoy the new chapter!**

I don't have a clue who is standing around my bed. Well, that's not true. The tall, brown rat is Master Splinter and the red banded turtle is Raphael. I'm assuming that everyone else is also my family, but I'm not sure. They might not be, especially the girl, she appears normal which is why I'm confused. Why would she be hanging out with a bunch of mutant freaks?

"Do you know who I am?" asks the purple banded turtle.

"No, should I?" I ask. I feel bad, he looks like I just punched him in the gut, but this is the Leo guy's family, they shouldn't care so much about me. I'm looking around for another bed, but I don't see one. Then I remember that Raphael had called me Leo. Am I Leo? All these weird creatures are my family?

"Do you know who I am?" the orange one is asking hesitantly. He's extremely serious, and for some reason that bothers me. He looks like he would be the goofball baby of the family. I shake my head 'no', and I'm about to turn to Raphael when he suddenly runs out of the room.

I turn to look at everyone else. The purple one is looking at me pensively while the orange one stares stonily ahead with tears running down his cheeks. He won't look at me. The girl is staring at me nervously, and I can tell that she won't ask if I remember her, she can already tell that I don't. I feel a furry paw on my shoulder, and I flinch. I guess it was more noticeable than I thought, because the paw is removed instantly. I turn to meet the furry, sad face of Master Splinter.

His eyes hold more grief than I thought could even be possible, and his ears lay flat to his head. He looks down at me gently and quietly answers the question no one had bothered to help me with.

"You are Leo. Your name is Hamato Leonardo, this is your family. I am your father, Hamato Yoshi, but you call me Master Splinter. These are your brothers and sister," he said calmly gesturing towards the two turtles and person. I decided not to mention that I hadn't known I was a turtle; I had this weird feeling that I had to protect them from harm, mental and physical, so I trusted my gut.

"I'm Donatello, you call me Donnie," said the purple banded one. I remember him talking to me when I was asleep. He was the only one who had bothered to introduce himself.

"I'm Michelangelo or Mikey or Dr. Prankenstein," said the orange one with a laugh. He was trying to lighten the mood; I was right when I labelled him the goofball.

"I'm April O'Neil," said the girl, taking a step forward. I eyed her warily, I don't completely trust her.

"We will let your other brother introduce himself when he is ready. However, there are more pressing matters. You must tell us how you feel, and if you can, tell us what the Kraang did to you and why," said Master Splinter gently. He was talking to me as if I were a hurt animal, he was calming and soothing. As nice as it was, it was also a bit humiliating. However, I sucked up my pride and continued to let him. I think it was helping him cope with the fact that his son had no idea who his family was. That had to be extremely tough.

I took a deep breath and began to think. I feel fine, I guess. The only thing really bothering me is an ache in my side, and I have a bit of a headache, but that will go away. They don't need to know.

"Leo, does anything hurt?" asked Donatello, I mean Donnie, in concern.

"No, I'm fine," I lied. He rolled his eyes.

"I can't believe you can't remember who you are, and yet you're still doing this. Don't play the hero! Tell me, does anything hurt, even a little?" asked Donnie again.

"No, really I'm fine," I replied. He looked at me as if he still wasn't buying it, but he let it be.

I began to think back to when I was with the Kraang. I couldn't remember much besides being stuck in the goo, but a few memories stuck out. All were torture sessions, and I shivered thinking about them. I realized that my family was looking at me in concern.

"Leo, are you cold? I'll go grab another blanket!" said… Dr. Prankenstein?

"No, no. Guys, really I'm fine. I was just thinking about the Kraang," I said carefully. I had been awake long enough to have figured out that they were going to flip out unless I was careful with my words.

"What were you thinking that scared you, my son?" asked Master Splinter.

"They were… harsh… in their treatment towards me," I said, again carefully choosing my words. 'Torture' would have sent them off the deep end.

"What did they want?" asked April for the first time. I was nervous about sharing information with her, but everyone else seemed to trust her, so I decided she couldn't be horrible.

"They wanted to know where something called the Lair was, and they kept asking where the turtles were. That didn't make sense when I was thinking about it in the tank, but it does now!" I joked. Apparently, they didn't find it funny.

"Dude, you're in the Lair," said Dr. Prankenstein, "this is our home."

"We live in a laboratory?" I asked in confusion. For some reason this caused Master Splinter to start laughing.

"No, we live in an abandoned train station near the sewers. This is just Donnie's lab, he's really smart," elaborated Dr. Prankenstein.

"Oh," I said, though that really hadn't helped at all. For a doctor, Dr. Prankenstein wasn't very good at explaining things.

"Do you work in the lab with Donnie? Why am I in here? What's the rest of the Lair like? Why were the Kraang trying to find you guys? Why did the Kraang have me? How did they get me? Did they have you guys? Why did my other brother run away? What's on my face?" I finished, finally noticing the soft fabric wrapped around my head and going around my eyes.

"Ummmmm, where should I start?" asked Dr. Prankenstein.

"Hold on, I'll explain. I don't want you to confuse him even more," said Donnie.

"Michelangelo, April, come with me. Let's give Donatello some time to explain. We'll be in the living room, Donatello, take all the time you need," said Master Splinter, ushering Dr. Prankenstein and April out the door. I looked at Donnie expectantly. He sighed, shut his eyes, and rubbed his temples.

"Okay, Mikey does not work in the lab with me, I try to keep him out at all times. You're in the lab because you were hurt when we found you, and I wanted to patch you up. The rest of the Lair is more or less a normal house, we have a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, bedrooms, but we also have a dojo for training. The Kraang want to find us because we're ninjas who stop them from taking over the world. Any questions so far?" started Donnie.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he held up a hand.

"Never mind, I'll answer the forty bazillion new questions later. The Kraang had you, and got you, because you were protecting us. You saved me, Raph, and Mikey from the Kraang, but they got you. They never had us. Raph ran away because he was upset and doesn't deal with emotions well. Hopefully Spock will come out of his room later," continued Donnie. He laughed towards the end like he had made a joke, but I didn't understand it. Raphael was called Raph, but who was Spock? Donnie noticed my confusion and stopped laughing.

"That was a joke, apparently not funny. Moving on… you have a mask on your face. Now, how about those new questions?"

"Why do we wear masks if we're giant, talking, mutant turtles? They're not going to help protect our identities or anything,"

"It's part of being a ninja. Ask Master Splinter. Next!" cried Donnie. I smiled, this was fun, and he was being extremely nice to me. I actually felt… safe. I hadn't felt safe in a long time, but the foreign, easy, calm feeling I had was safety.

"Why do you work in the lab?"

"Because I can do research and invent things in here without anyone bothering me. Also, I can't bother anyone else with my tech in here. It also doubles as a hospital," he said quickly, gesturing towards my monitors and IV bag.

"Why do you keep Dr. Prankenstein out of the lab? He's a doctor, isn't he?" I didn't know the doctor very well, so I decided to go with his formal title.

"Oh goodness no! Oh my gosh, you thought he was a real doctor! No, Mikey calls himself Dr. Prankenstein because he's really good at pulling pranks. He introduced himself that way because he was trying to make us laugh, I'm sorry you got confused. Boy, I needed that though. I haven't laughed this hard in forever. Mikey as a doctor would be a disaster!" laughed Donnie.

He wiped away a tear, managed to control his laughter, took one look at me and started laughing again. I can't say I blame him; now that I'm thinking about it, it does seem pretty ridiculous. Before long, I'm laughing too, and the two of just sat there laughing and talking for hours. Donnie showed me some of his inventions, checked the healing progress on my wounds, and then began to work on his retro mutagen. He explained that it was for April's real dad, whom we had apparently accidentally turned into a giant bat. What a nice thing to do.

He worked on it, not really making much progress, while talking to me about all the different variations of mutagen he had found so far, and the stories behind each canister of mutagen we had found. He was trying to cheer me up, and it felt great. He wouldn't let me up from the bed, but he did bring his work closer to my bed so that I could see what he was doing. I don't remember ever having anyone be this nice to me, all I can remember is the Kraang's torture. I was expecting something similar from these creatures, but instead they have taken me in and showed me the meaning of family.

Finally, Master Splinter walked into the lab.

"My sons, it is time for dinner," he said with a smile.

"Coming, Sensei," we called at the same time.

Master Splinter grinned and left the room, leaving the door open behind him. He seemed extremely happy to be looking at Donnie and me hanging out together, and when we called out at the same time, he looked as if he were the happiest man, er… rat, in the world.

"Hey, can I walk to dinner?" I asked Donnie hesitantly.

"No. I have a wheel chair, I'll wheel you out," replied Donnie, walking over to a closet.

"But you said the kitchen is really close."

"I also just said no," he responded.

"Please? I haven't been able to move in _forever_," I groaned, playing the low, but effective, paralysis card.

"Fine," he huffed, "but don't make me regret this! No running, no jumping, no anything! Just walk out there and sit down."

"Yes mom," I joked.

He glared at me, but I could tell he didn't really mean it. Carefully I worked my way off the cot and onto the cold cement floor of the lab. I stood up shakily, and my legs almost gave out beneath me, but I grabbed the bed and steadied myself. Donnie watched me like a hawk, studying me every move, and ready to catch me at any moment. Hesitantly, I took a shaky step forward, then another, and another until finally I was at the door to the lab.

Donnie ran over to meet me, and helped to support me over to the kitchen. Coming out of the lab, I found myself in a large open room with a couch, TV, and chair in the middle. Off to the right was a row of turnstiles, and to the left there was a long hallway with rooms on either side. Straight ahead was a room with Japanese style screens in front of it, the dojo I guessed, and next to that was the kitchen.

We carefully made our way across the floor of the Lair, picking our way around weird, square boxes, toys, weapons, and a punching bag? That was certainly out of place. A pinball machine was pushed up against the wall, and everything in me wanted to go play. The high score sign read that Leo was in first place, further proof that I had lived here. I wished I could remember.

By the time we came into the kitchen and sat down, I was exhausted, but I wasn't about to tell Donnie that. He wouldn't let me walk anywhere ever again. I breathed out a sigh of relief as I sat down and was surprised by sudden cheering.

Dr. Prankenstein, I mean Mikey, was cheering for me now that I was seated at the table.

"Ya, Leo! Who can walk from the lab to the kitchen? That guy! That's right, that guy can do it!" yelled Mikey.

I laughed, and Donnie, April, and Master Splinter joined me. Eventually, we stopped, and Donnie looked at me in concern.

"Do you feel ok after doing that? It would be putting a lot of strain on your body after not being used in so long," said Donnie in the now-familiar, nasally voice.

"I'm fine, Donnie. Never better," I lied.

My head was beginning to hurt again, and I could have fallen asleep right there at the table. Walking twenty feet had taken much more out of me than it should have.

"All right then, let's eat!" cried Mikey.

"Wait, shouldn't we wait for Raph?" asked Mikey.

"He's not eating with us tonight," grumbled Master Splinter.

"Okay. What's for dinner?" I asked.

Mikey looked at me in shock.

"Dude, don't tell me you have forgotten _pizza_?!" he screeched, by the way he said it, you would think it was the worst thing in the world.

"Ya, Mikey, I don't have a clue what that is," I said slowly, watching his reaction.

He gasped in shock and looked around the room at everyone in horror. Suddenly, he lunged for one of the square boxes I had seen in the living room, except this one was on the table. Opening the box with a flourish, he lifted out a triangular piece of something reverently. Holding the greasy triangle out in front of him, he handed it to me. It appeared to be cardboard, covered in melted cheese, with weird red polka dots. I grimaced, this was the opposite of appetizing.

"Eat it. Taste the greasy goodness," crooned Mikey while everyone else tried to stifle their laughter.

Shutting my eyes to avoid looking at the disgusting creation before me, I shoved the triangle in my mouth. It was amazing. My eyes flew open, and I quickly shoved down the rest.

"See? I told you," Mikey smirked.

We ate pizza, talked, and laughed until Donnie said it was time for me to go to bed. Secretly, I was a bit relieved; it had been a big night. Donnie helped me walk across the Lair. He started to take me across to where the bedrooms were, but I stopped him.

"May I sleep in the lab tonight? Please?" I asked nervously.

I was honestly scared of being on my own. I needed to know this was real and not some sick new hallucination devised by the Kraang. I remembered the gas. Much to my relief, he nodded and ushered me back to my cot in the lab. A little bit later, Mikey came in dragging a sleeping bag. Although he tried hard not to wake me up, he tripped and fell with a loud crash that could have woken up a tranquilized elephant.

"Hi, Mikey. Wha' are ya doin'?" I groaned, still half asleep.

"I'm sleeping in here with you and Donnie tonight," he explained with a yawn.

"Don' sleep… on da fwoor…. Get up he-er," I murmured tiredly, patting the empty space on my cot.

He climbed up and snuggled in happily. Just as I trailed off to sleep, he murmured in a barely audible whisper, "Good night, Leo. I missed you."

"I missed you too," I whispered back.

The next morning when we woke up, we made our way to the kitchen where more pizza was eaten. Apparently, it was acceptable to eat this delicacy at any time during the day! We played video games, chatted, and planned a prank for when the other turtle came out of his room. I grew tired quickly, and retreated to the lab for a nap with a splitting headache. I barely made it to the bed before I passed out with a groan. What felt like minutes later, I felt someone shaking me.

"Leo, wake up! Leo!" said the shaker.

"What?" I tried to say, but it came out more like "Waaaaaa?" Great, that sounded intelligent.

"Leo, are you ok? Mikey said you came in here for a nap _six hours ago_,_"_ said the shaker. Slowly my pain ridden brain realized that Donnie was talking to me.

"Ummm, ya. I guess I just lost track of time," I said lamely, shrugging Donnie off of me. Physical contact really bothered me for some reason.

"For six hours? While you were asleep? Get out and watch TV or something," commanded Donnie incredulously.

"Fine," I huffed.

Pulling myself out of bed, I walked out of the lab, sat down on the couch, and stared at a blank television screen. I couldn't remember how to work the TV, but I was too embarrassed to say anything about it. I felt someone watching me, and looked up. To my surprise, it was Raphael! Although it might just be Dr. Prankenstein trying to pull a fast one on me. Switch up the masks and I would have no idea who was who.

"Ra… Raph… Raphael? Right?" I asked tentatively.

He nearly fell over, so this must be the real Raphael.

"What?" he replied in surprise.

"That's your name, right? Raphael? You're my….," I scrambled for the word that had just escaped my mind. It was on the tip of my tongue! Finally, it came back to me, "brother! You're my brother!"

He looked at me in shock, and I realized that I must have looked like a total idiot. Inwardly I groaned, I didn't want a pity party.

"That's… that's right. Usually you call me 'Raph' though. Do you remember Donnie and Mikey and April too?" he stammered excitedly.

"No. They've introduced themselves, and we've hung out a little bit, but I don't remember them at all. I'm sorry, but I barely even remember you and Sensei. I only remember your names and that he's my father and you're my brother. I also remember that I'm supposed to protect you, not just you, all of you." I said sadly. It was easier to talk to him for some reason. Despite the safety and comfort I had felt over the last two days, I was still extremely confused and scared. However, I didn't tell anyone that, just like I said, I knew I had to protect them.

"Stop, it's our turn to take care of you!" he snapped.

I looked at him in surprise. Why was he yelling at me? What had I said? I began to feel a bit panicky as memories of the Kraang lashing out at me for nothing flooded my mind. I began to retreat back to the lab, my safe spot, when he stopped me.

"Leo, wait! I didn't mean that. I'm short tempered," he explained.

Something told me that was as close as I was going to get to an apology from him. Still, that would be a good thing to remember for the future.

"I didn't know that. Wait…" I trailed off as I began to think. Something about that was ringing bells… a single memory of a night when all four turtles were out on a rooftop, Raphael looking over us.

"Okay, I'm the leader now…," he said.

That was it! I knew what everyone did! I felt quite pleased with myself as I told him what I had remembered.

"I just remembered! Mikey's the goofball youngest; Donnie is the smart one; and, you're the leader! Wait, what do I do?" I asked.

I watched as about a million expressions passed over his face. Confusion, alarm, sadness, and finally anger. He looked at me with hard, yet caring eyes.

"No, Leo. You're the leader. I'm the protector. Donnie is the genius. Mikey gives us hope. Master Splinter is our father and teacher, and April is our sister," he said roughly.

"I'm the leader?" I asked in shock. No way. Nope, not this turtle. I can't do anything! How on earth could I lead my brothers around?

"Ya!" he said excitedly.

"But I'm useless," I muttered.

I wish I hadn't said that, because that is how I ended up stuck inside a smelly room with an angry turtle. It's also how I ended up with another splitting headache and a homework assignment. I have amazing luck. I retreated back to the lab, put down the journal and lay down for another nap. Donnie was completely absorbed in his project and didn't even notice me. I fell asleep almost instantly. Before dinner, Donnie woke me up and told me he wanted to show me something.

He led me into a room filled with action figures and posters for something called Space Heroes. There was a neat bookshelf, a perfectly made bed, and stars painted on the ceiling. I smiled, this place seemed familiar.

"What is this place?" I asked Donnie.

"It's your bedroom. Do you remember any of this?" he asked gently, gesturing around the room. I shook my head no.

He hung his head sadly and ushered me out and into the kitchen. We grabbed some spaghetti and meatballs, apparently a type of food made by the mysterious Italians who had also made the pizza, and went out to the living room to watch TV. I carefully studied how Donnie operated the remote so I could use it later. I began to eat, but soon forgot my food as a cast of aliens and an amazing leader named Captain Ryan went on quests around the galaxy in a rocket ship. It was the best thing I have ever seen, I think.

I went to bed shortly after the show ended, only to be woken later by a shrill screaming and an intense pain shooting through my head. Through my pain riddled haze, I realized I was making the sound, but I found I couldn't stop. I could barely register that Donnie was rushing around me trying to figure out what was wrong. From somewhere far away, I heard Raphael scream "Donnie!" Then I lost consciousness.


	17. Chapter 16

**Hello lovely readers! Wow, it's cold here, and I'm getting a snow day at school tomorrow. My city is so stupid, one inch of snow and the whole place shuts down! On the plus side, this means lots of time for sledding for me, but for y'all it's good because there's time for writing! Thanks again for all the support everybody, y'all are the best! Have a great day y'all and enjoy the chapter!**

"Donnie!" I screamed again, rushing into the lab. Something was wrong with Leo; I knew it. As I ran into the lab, I found a frantic Donnie rushing around Leo's bed trying to calm him and figure out what was wrong at the same time. Mikey was cowering in the corner staring at his brother in horror.

I followed his gaze to the bed and felt nauseous. Leo's entire body was convulsing, his hands were clasped to his head as if he were trying to hold it together, and his face was contorted in pain. He was still screaming in pain despite Donnie's efforts, but suddenly he stopped. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, and honestly the following silence scared me more than the screams. The whole situation reminded me of that horrible night when we had lost Leo the first time.

As soon as his screams stopped, he stopped shaking, and his hands fell back down to his sides. I looked to Donnie in a panic.

"Is he…?" I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence.

"No," sighed Donnie.

Mikey breathed a sigh of relief and slowly made his way from the corner back to where Donnie and I were standing.

"Why don't you go to bed, Mikey? We'll get you if anything happens," I said gently.

"No! He's my brother too. I'm not that stupid little turtle you seem to think I am. I can handle this," he replied angrily.

"What Raph means is, you look tired. We just want you to get some rest so you will be able to help us tomorrow," soothed Donnie, although pain from Mikey's statement was evident in his eyes.

"Okay, but if anything happens, you get me _immediately_!" growled Mikey before leaving the lab.

I turned angrily to Donnie, adrenaline still coursing through me. I had thought I was coming to fight for my brother's lives, that someone had invaded the Lair.

"What the hell was that?" I asked roughly.

"I think he had a seizure," replied Donnie nervously.

"You think?" I growled.

"That's the best bet, but I'm not entirely sure. It could be something else," sighed Donnie.

"Well, how would you figure out if it was a seizure?"

"I'll run some tests tomorrow when he wakes up," he stated matter-of-factly.

"So he will wake up?"

"Of course."

"What caused this?" I asked nervously; I wasn't sure if I really wanted to hear the answer.

"Honestly? Stress most likely. He insisted on being up and about, and his body couldn't handle the stress. Also, you yelling at him today probably didn't help at all either. He's also most likely been having flashbacks of memories, as some amnesia patients do, and they add to the stress because it makes him want to know what his life was like more than ever. As much as we want to believe he's still our strong, fearless leader and brother, the truth is that this is a weak and scared turtle we need to help," rushed Donnie sadly.

I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Leo had a seizure, and it was partly my fault. Of course it was, I can't do anything right anymore. I glanced down at the frail, scarred, and pale form of my sleeping brother. His chest rose and fell unevenly, and his breathing was ragged. Donnie had hooked him up to the IV drip again, and the heart monitor had been turned on. I shut my eyes, I didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to be in my daydream world again, I wanted to be fighting Purple Dragons, I wanted to be training in the dojo, and I wanted to be anywhere but here. However, my brothers need me.

Mustering up my courage, I turned to Donnie. He looked exhausted, taking care of Leo was harder for him than he let on.

"What can I do to help?" I asked slowly.

Donnie looked at me in surprise. Did everyone think I was some kind of heartless monster? I loved my brothers, of course I want to help Leo. I feel guilty about what happened to him; it was my fault.

"Be patient with him. He told me what you said about him 'not being your brother', and Raph as true as it is that Leo isn't with us right now, he's in there somewhere and you just hurt him. It's going to take time for him to come back to us. Take away the journal; if he reads that it will only add to the stress of the flashbacks, we need to do this gradually," said Donnie, going into doctor mode.

"How else can I help?" I asked as I picked up the journal and slid it into my belt.

"Right now?"

"Ya,"

"Give me the bag of fluids in the mini-fridge labelled "morphine"," grumbled Donnie as he took notes on the readings on Leo's monitors.

"Okay, but why?" I said, throwing open the fridge to look for the bag.

"He's in a lot of pain, and we need to sedate him for a little bit to make sure he doesn't wake up and put more stress on his body. Why wouldn't he tell me he was hurt?" Donnie muttered as he began to examine Leo.

I stopped. Donnie wanted to force Leo to sleep, after he had already been asleep for weeks? Nope, not helping there. He can get his own stupid bag of drugs, I'm not helping with that. Painkillers, sure that makes sense, but I'm not forcing my brother to be either awake or asleep. He did that on his own because he was _alive_. No one should have the right to control him like that after the Kraang had done it for so long.

"No. You can't drug him," I growled angrily.

"Why not? It'll help him feel better," he groaned in annoyance.

"No. I'm not helping you do that. Do it yourself," I said angrily.

Storming out of the lab, I ran into an extremely concerned Master Splinter. Everything about him screamed 'I'm worried'. He was wringing his hands anxiously, and his whiskers were twitching rapidly. His ears were upright and alert, and he was tense. He looked down at me, and I was upset after my fight with Donnie. He took one look at my angry, depressed face and feared the worst.

"No! Leonardo," he gasped before flying into the lab.

I started to call out to him that everything was fine, but I decided against it. Master Splinter was the all-knowing-genius's problem now. I stormed off to my room and went back to sleep.

Early the next morning, I was awoken by another ear splitting shriek. Panic engulfed me; I couldn't let Leo hurt himself more because I talked the doctor out of his medicine! I sprinted to the lab expecting to find Donnie struggling with Leo again, but instead I found an angry Leo yelling at an equally frustrated Donnie.

"Why the shell did you tie me to the _bed?!_" screamed Leo.

"You were convulsing! I didn't want you to fall off," Donnie yelled back.

"You can untie me now though," he pointed out.

"No! You could get hurt!"

"I'm not stupid, Donnie. I'll be fine," growled Leo.

"Clearly you won't, because that's what you told me two days ago and look where we are!" cried Donnie in exasperation.

I was seething. As if we needed more proof that the turtle we were currently taking care of wasn't Leo, here he was yelling at Donnie. Leo only ever yelled at me, and that was only when I provoked him. He was usually a pretty calm and even-tempered guy. Suddenly, the fight with Donnie last night didn't mean anything to me; I wasn't going to let this imposter yell at my brother.

I stormed into the lab, slamming the door shut behind me. Both of them stopped there arguing to eye me warily before turning back to each other with scowls across their faces. Donnie looked hurt while Leo looked furious. He had a glint in his eye that I had never seen before, and it made me nervous.

"What the shell is going on?" I started, even though I knew full well what was happening. Eaves dropping would not earn me any brownie points here.

"This idiot tied me to a bed!" seethed Leo.

"I was just trying to help you. You're blowing this out of proportion," said Donnie firmly.

"That idiot is our brother, but I don't expect you to remember that," I growled.

Donnie gasped, and I realized what a low blow that had been. I expected Leo to merely bow his head and blame himself for what I'd said like he used to, but instead he met my gaze furiously.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand what it's like to be out of control of your own body," he whispered lowly.

I took a step back. That is exactly why I had asked Donnie not to drug him last night, and yet I'm beginning to agree with Donnie that it might have been a good idea.

"Leo, bro, why don't you go meditate? That always relaxes you," murmured Donnie soothingly as he began to untie the ropes holding Leo down.

He was trying to salvage an unsalvageable situation, and things were going from bad to worse. As soon as the ropes were untied, Leo jumped to his feet and glared at us before he began to sway and his knees gave out beneath him. He fell to the floor heavily and knocked his head off the bed hard. He lay there in a confused daze as I ran to his side, my anger forgotten.

"Leo! Are you okay?" I cried, dropping to my knees next to him.

"Leo? Can you hear me? Say something!" Donnie insisted urgently as he examined Leo's head.

A large bump had already formed on the side of his head, and he still looked dazed. After a couple of seconds, he blinked slowly and looked at Donnie.

"Dr. Prankenstein ate my apple," he muttered in confusion before passing out on the floor.

"What the shell?" I asked Donnie.

"Yep, he's concussed," stated Donnie.

"'Dr. Prankenstein ate my apple?' Really?" I snickered.

"My guess is as good as yours. Help me get him onto the bed, please," said Donnie, shaking his head in disbelief, "It's like he attracts trouble."

"Tell me about it. He gets taken by the Kraang, tortured, loses his memory, gets a seizure, and now has a concussion. Are you sure something isn't seriously wrong with him Donnie? Could something the Kraang did have screwed up his brain to cause all these problems?"

"Did you just use your brain?" replied Donnie in surprise.

"Shut up and answer the question," I growled.

"Okay. It's possible that they did something to him, but remember when he contacted us? He remembered us then. I'm thinking he got lost in his own mind while stuck in the goo. Leo's in there somewhere trying to get out. His mental struggle, as I said before, is putting stress on his body which triggered the seizure, which made him weak, which is why he passed out when he stood up," mumbled Donnie.

"Could getting hit on the head help him remember? I've heard that it can," I asked.

"Maybe?" said Donnie, giving me a weird look.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," he smirked.

"What is it?" I insisted.

"I think I remember you saying that this wasn't your brother,"

"He's not," I growled.

"Well then why do you care if he's okay or not?" asked Donnie with a smug grin.

"I don't," I said angrily.

"Riiiiight," laughed Donnie as he opened his laptop.

"You're impossible," I huffed, rolling my eyes.

I left the lab to the sound of typing, Donnie's hysterical laughter, and the incessant beeping of the heart monitor. I walked over to the kitchen and glanced at the clock on the microwave; it was 6:05. If it had been a normal day, Leo would be up and about making tea and preparing for the day ahead while everyone else slept, but this wasn't a normal day. Instead, I was one the one awake in the kitchen while Leo slept. I grimaced, and as I looked away from the clock I noticed the scorch marks surrounding the wall by the microwave.

Much needed happy memories flooded my mind. Most of the scorch marks had been created by Leo's misadventures in cooking- burnt popcorn, exploding potatoes, and once he tried to heat water for tea in the microwave only to badly burn himself when it popped as he opened the door. A reddish stain on the wall slightly above Leo's scorches was the result of one of Mikey's pranks. Donnie had made the mistake of giving Mikey a paint ball gun for Christmas when we were eleven, and he had attacked us all at breakfast the next morning. We were hit by most of them, but one red one had made its way to the wall, and it never came off no matter how much scrubbing we did. There were dents from where I had punched the wall at different points, and one long burn going up to the ceiling that was clearly from one of Donnie's many experiments. There was even a slash from where April had accidentally embedded her fan in the wall the first night she had it.

I smiled, this wall was a reminder of all the good times I had with my brothers. It was a reminder of why I needed to help Leo regain his memory. This wall stood for my family, and it left a mark on me just as surely as we had left our mark on it. I missed the chaotic but lovable mess that had been my family; now all we were was a mess.

The smile slid from my face, and with a sigh I sat down at the kitchen table and put my head in my hands. I started as a furry paw landed on my shoulder, but relaxed as I realized it was only Master Splinter. He sat down beside me and gave me his patented 'I'm-your-father-and-something-is-bothering-you-so-tell-me-or-else' face.

"I miss him, Sensei," I moaned.

"So do I, my son. But we have to stay strong and trust that he will come back to us eventually," murmured Sensei soothingly.

"He doesn't even act like himself anymore. Sometimes I think I see Leo in there, but most of the time it's like there is a stranger wearing my brother's face. I'm tired of having to be the oldest, and I'm tired of being the leader," I complained, glancing at Master Splinter nervously.

"I understand, Raphael. However, right now your brothers need you to be their big brother. They look up to you my son, whether you know it or not; and, while you may not want to be leader, you have to put your wants aside in order to serve your brothers better as their leader. Leonardo learned this early," said Sensei slowly.

He sighed. I was glad that he hadn't heard Leo's outburst this morning; I think it would have hurt him more than he already is. No one deserves to lose as much as our father has, and now he is slowly watching his eldest son disappear. I can't imagine the pain he must feel, and yet he stays strong for us. He stays strong for his family, and I understand that that is what I must do. I must be strong for my brothers because they need me now more than ever. I squared my shoulders and lifted my head.

"Thank you, Father," I said as I left the kitchen.

"You're welcome, Raphael. Remember to be patient with your brothers. I'll meet you all in the dojo," he replied.

He stood up and went into the dojo while I went to wake up Mikey. I decided to give Donnie a bit of extra time to do his thing – whatever it may be- because he had been working extremely hard and deserved some extra time to unwind. I stood staring at Mikey's door before I entered the disaster area he somehow managed to live in.

Pizza boxes filled with pizzas in various states of decay, dirty masks, comic books, food, wrappers, and even some dirty socks (don't ask me how those got in there; I don't have a clue. We don't even _wear _socks!) littered every surface in the room except for the lumpy bed in the corner. Mikey's hand dangled out from under the sheets, and his snores could have put a monster truck's engine to shame. He was still fast asleep, and a little drool had snaked out of his mouth and left a shiny trail going down his cheek. He looked so much younger in sleep; he looked more like the innocent, young Mikey I missed so much. I didn't want to wake him up and force him to face reality, but we were training soon, and he needed breakfast.

Roughly, I shook him.

"Mikey! Mikey!" I hissed.

"What? Get out, Raph!" he muttered, still half asleep.

"No! It's time to get up," I told him.

"No it's not, Leo wakes us all up. Go back to bed, shell-for-brains," he muttered sleepily as he rolled over and away from me.

I let him go. Those words had felt like a punch to the gut. I tiptoed back out of the room and went to meet Master Splinter in the dojo.

"Where are your brothers?" he asked curtly.

"I think we should wait one more day before continuing our training," I said.

"If you think that is best," said Master Splinter uncharacteristically.

"Master Splinter, are you okay?" I asked nervously, he never let us skip training.

"I heard the exchange between you and Michelangelo. Your brothers are not yet ready. Let them rest. Now leave, I'm meditating," he snapped.

I backed out of the dojo and sat down on the couch. I flipped on the TV and channel surfed until a news story caught my eye.

"Reporting live from TCRI headquarters in New York City, I'm Sadie Hopkins. Tonight, we will be doing an exclusive interview with the head of TCRI to find out what really happens behind these heavily guarded doors," said a perky blonde reporter.

I stared at the screen in shock. Something in my gut was telling me that the Kraang were up to something, and whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good.


	18. Chapter 17

**Hello lovely readers! Y'all are awesome! Thank you for all the support with comments, follows, and favorites, it really means a lot to me. While this story isn't finished yet, I am thinking of starting another. I have some ideas, but I'm curious to hear what y'all want. Comment or PM me if you have any ideas for a story you want. Thanks, and enjoy the chapter!**

I stared at the TV in shock. The news program had long ago cut to commercials, but the reporter's words were still rattling around in my head. An inside report on TCRI? What the shell were the Kraang planning? There was no way that the Kraang were just doing an interview, they were planning _something_, and whatever it was, it was going to be televised. I winced as I thought of what could happen- mass hysteria, maybe riots, panic. Were they going to announce an alien invasion, or experiment with mutagen? The sight of one Kraang alone would cause panic. Their creepy robot disguises would help a little, but I had a feeling no one would buy it.

The familiar tones of the news show began to play, and I lunged for the remote and paused the television before running to Master Splinter.

"Sensei! The…. The Kraang! They're going to be on TV!" I cried.

He shook himself out of his meditation and looked at me angrily.

"Raphael? What is the meaning of this? You know better than to disturb me when I meditate," he barked.

"But, Master Splinter, the Kraang are letting reporters into TCRI," I repeated.

He looked at me in disbelief, and I could see him running through all the possible scenarios in his head.

"This is most troubling. When are they doing this?"

"Today, they are doing an interview on TV! Now!" I said angrily.

I had already told him all of this. If he had just listened…

"Gather your brothers. We will watch this interview and see what the Kraang are up to," he intoned.

We walked hurriedly out of the dojo together. Master Splinter went to wake up Mikey while I crossed the Lair to grab Donnie. Carefully, I slid into the lab to avoid waking Leo. Donnie looked up at me in surprise, his goggles were pushed up on his forehead, and he was wielding a blow torch in one hand and pliers in the other. A mutilated piece of metal was disassembled in front of him.

"Ummm, hey, Raph. What's going on?" asked Donnie.

"How is he?" I asked, completely ignoring Donnie's question.

"He fine. He hasn't woken up since he passed out, but I'm not sure what's causing that. Everything else seems fine, why?"

"Good. How long until he wakes up, do you think?" I asked, again ignoring Donnie's question.

"Umm, I don't know, half an hour? Why does it matter, Raph? What's going on?"

"The Kraang are doing a televised interview inside TCRI, and I don't want Leo to see it. You, however, need to. Come on," I growled, dragging a confused and worried Donnie out into the living room.

We sat down on the couch and Master Splinter came out a few moments later trailing a hyper Mikey. Mikey perched on the couch in his usual place, and Sensei sunk heavily into his beat-up recliner. Master Splinter looked around and glanced at me with pride in his eyes.

"Good idea, Raphael," he said silently to me.

Feeling rather pleased with myself, I took the remote and pressed 'play'. The news jingle continued before opening up onto two overly-pleasant news anchors.

"Good morning, I'm John Smith," said a tall, skinny man with a pinstriped suit and glasses.

"And I'm Donna Noble. This is channel 10 action news at 7:00," said a shorter, red headed woman loudly.

"We have many stories this morning, but first traffic!" said the man brightly.

"We don't need to watch this, fast forward to the Kraang, my son," interrupted Master Splinter.

The two news anchors moved quickly across the screen until a picture of the TCRI building appeared on the screen next to Donna's head.

"I hate pears. Who would do a story on _pears_?" John was whining.

"Oh be quiet," muttered Donna, casting him a warning glance, "In other news, the elusive TCRI Company has agreed to open its doors to our reporters for an interview explaining what exactly it is they do. This live interview will air at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, so be sure to tune in."

"Oh I can't wait to figure out what those little Kraang do in there!" announced John.

I though Donnie's eyes were going to pop out of his head they grew so wide.

"How does he…?" I asked Donnie.

"I have no idea," he muttered.

"Kraang?" asked Donna on the TV, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Kraang! Donna, you know that's why we… oh," he said as she cleared her throat, "I mean, you know that's what I've started to call people who have lots of secrets! It's a word I'm trying to make happen. Apparently, it's not working," chuckled John nervously.

"Yes, that's _exactly _what a Kraang is. Anyways, time for the weather!" exclaimed Donna.

I turned off the TV.

"My sons, this is most troubling. If the Kraang are letting people into TCRI, they are most definitely planning something. The fact that they are allowing it to be put on TV is even more troubling. Donatello, I want you to gather as much information from the databases you've hacked as you can. Raphael, I want you to go get April and bring her up to date. Michelangelo, take care of Leonardo. Don't let him learn about this. We'll meet back here in an hour to share information. Go," instructed Master Splinter.

He was taking the role of leader, and strangely enough it bothered me. I should be doing this; Leo should be doing this. Instead, I'm here taking orders from my father. I don't want to talk to April; Mikey is better at that.

"Hey, Mikey!" I called as soon as Master Splinter and Donnie left the room.

"What?" he whispered back.

"Do you wanna switch jobs with me? You go get April, and I'll take care of Leo," I offered.

A grin spread over his face.

"Ya, of course! See ya later dude," he exclaimed as he ran out of the Lair.

I walked over to the lab, and I wasn't paying much attention as I walked into the room. I sat down next to bulky cot and sighed.

"Hey, Leo," I said slowly.

No response.

"Hey, Leo," I tried again.

Again, no response.

"Leo, it's time to get up shell-for-brains," I growled.

And again, there was no response.

"Leo?" I asked nervously, turning to the cot.

I nearly screamed. The cot was empty.

"LEO!" I yelled. He had been asleep; Donnie and I had _just _seen him! Donnie was going to be in here any second to start his research, what was I going to do? Leo was gone! Maybe he just went to use the bathroom my rational side pointed out. I decided to go look. Cautiously making my way across the Lair, I knocked on the bathroom door. It swung open- no Leo.

Maybe he was in the kitchen. I went in to look, but he wasn't there either. Fighting the panic rising inside me, I looked in his room, the dojo, the living room, the kitchen again, and finally found myself in the lab again facing Donnie.

"Hey, Raph. Where's Leo?" asked Donnie, assuming that he had been out with me.

"I don't know," I mumbled.

"What?" said Donnie.

"I don't know where Leo is," I repeated in a panic now.

"How the shell do you lose your older brother?!" roared Donnie.

"I don't know! He wasn't here when I came to check on him!" I replied nervously.

"Wasn't that Mikey's job?"

"Yes, but we traded. It doesn't matter! Leo isn't here!" I said in full on panic mode.

"Where did you look for him?" asked Donnie, also beginning to panic just a little.

"Everywhere. I looked everywhere," I muttered.

"Maybe he got confused with his amnesia and the concussion and wandered off," murmured Donnie.

"Then he's somewhere in the sewers. Wait- Don, did he have his phone?" I exclaimed.

"I think so, why?" said Donnie in confusion, then understanding flashed across his face before going quickly into tech Donnie mode, "I can track his phone signal! Raph, you have a brain!"

"You won't have one left if you keep making fun of me," I growled in response.

Donnie's hands began to fly across the keys of his computer, and a light started blinking on his phone. Donnie lunged for it, and quickly began to type into it. Finally, a map of the sewers with a blue light moving erratically around it appeared on the screen.

"This is Leo," said Donnie, pointing to the blue dot, "and this is us in the Lair," he continued, gesturing to the red and purple dots inside a large brown block, "If we follow these tunnels, we can get him back quickly. From the rate his dot is moving at, I would say that he's running, but I have no way of knowing why. He could be scared, in danger, confused, or just out for a run,"

"Or all of the above," I growled, "Right. So let's go get him," I continued, pounding my fist into my open palm.

"Get who?" asked Master Splinter as he walked into the lab. Donnie's face visibly paled, and I froze. We. Were. Screwed.

"Ummmm, Spike! Spike ran away," I mumbled before mentally slapping myself. There was no Spike anymore; there was Slash.

Master Splinter raised an eyebrow and looked to Donnie who was glaring at me as if he couldn't believe how stupid I was. I mean honestly, Spike hadn't been my pet since _before _Leo was captured. Where the shell did that excuse come from?

"Donatello, who are you looking for?" asked Sensei suspiciously.

Donnie hung his head dejectedly before shooting me a look clearly saying 'I could have gotten us out of this you idiot'.

"We're looking for Leo, Sensei. He wanted to play hide and seek," said Donnie.

This turtle could talk circles around anything. He was smart too; I would never have thought of that excuse. I thought we were done for.

"Hide and seek?" asked Master Splinter skeptically.

"Yes! He hid very well and now Donnie and I can't find him," I exclaimed.

"Yep!" agreed Donnie a little too cheerily.

"Why don't I help you look for him? I remember your brother's favorite hiding places from when you were all little," offered Sensei, his tail twitching.

That's when Donnie and I realized that Master Splinter hadn't been fooled for two seconds. We were done for once we found Leo.

"How long were you outside the door for?" asked Donnie hesitantly.

"For long enough. Go find your brother, when you come home you will both be punished for lying, irresponsibility, and disobeying orders. Go now," he barked.

Donnie and I raced out of the Lair like the Shredder was on our tails. Donnie held the phone out in front of him and called out directions as we ran through the maze of tunnels that webbed beneath the surface of New York City.

"Right, straight, right again, left, stop! It says we're right on top of him!" cried Donnie looking at the little colored dots on the screen.

We looked around and found that we were in some sort of drainage basin. We were standing on a ledge about six feet wide overlooking a large pit full of swirling water. Three large tunnels opened into the basin below us, and pipes crisscrossed the ceiling. The steady of flow of water beneath us was deafening, I could barely hear myself think over the roars of the angry, roiling river.

"Leo?" I yelled out.

"Leo!" shouted Donnie.

Neither of us received a response, so instead we continued to walk along the outer rim of the basin calling out for our brother. After about ten minutes, we found ourselves back where we had started.

"Where is he?" I muttered.

"The map still says he's here. Let me refine the search, hold on," grumbled Donnie as he began furiously typing into his phone.

He stopped typing and began to examine the screen again before looking up in confusion. He spun in a circle looking up, down, left, and right at a dizzying speed. He knelt close to the ground, and his eyes widened in understanding.

"What is it? Don, where is he?" I growled in exasperation.

Behind me, the waters roared louder, and I could barely hear Donnie as he murmured, "Not here. He never was."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I scoffed.

"Exactly what it sounded like," muttered Donnie angrily as he picked something off the ground.

He held the items out to me, and I took them with trembling hands. In my hands were my brother's worn blue mask, his phone, and a crisp white envelope addressed to the 'Hamato Clan'. I looked at Donnie in shock. I had been through a lot these last few months, and something in me was about to break. I kept losing my brother. Every time I thought I had him back, he was ripped from my grasp, but not just my grasp, my entire family's.

I heard a sniffle and looked up from the terrifying assortment of items in my lap to my younger brother. He was crying. I'm not ordinarily the touchy-feely type, but Donnie was hurt. No one hurt my brothers except for me, and I walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. He stiffened a bit in surprise then relaxed and snuggled closer to me.

"Why does this keep happening, Raph? I just want it to be over," Donnie sobbed.

"I don't know, little brother. But look at me," I said taking a step back and placing my hands on his shoulders, "We'll find him. We'll get through this."

Donnie smiled sadly through the tears.

"Thanks, Raph," he murmured.

We turned and left the basin, and behind us the waters roared angrily, echoing my feelings.

"How are we going to tell them, Raph?" muttered Donnie.

"I don't know, Donnie. We still have to figure out what the Kraang are planning and possibly save the world from them again," I groaned, passing a hand over my face.

I felt the scratchy paper from the envelope and the soft fabric of Leo's mask graze my face. I lowered my hand and examined the envelope. Was it an apology from Leo? A ransom note? Poison? The handwriting was crude, almost as if it had been written by a child, and there were ink stains all over the paper. Turning it over, I noticed that instead of being held shut by the sticky adhesive on the back flap as most envelopes are, this one was held together by a wax seal with an insignia I would recognize anywhere. The Foot.

The Foot had my brother, but this wasn't their style. Something was going on.

"Hey Donnie," I started, breaking the genius out of his thoughts.

"Ya, Raph?" he answered, his voice still raw from crying.

"This letter has the Foot crest on it," I murmured.

"Please tell me you're kidding," he moaned.

"I wish I could," I grumbled.

He fell silent, and I could practically see the wheels turning in his head. Suddenly his eyes widened.

"What did you figure out Donnie?" I asked.

We were almost back to the Lair, and I could see the faint glow of the TV coming from the living room. Just as we jumped over the rusted turnstiles, Donnie exclaimed loudly, "I don't know why yet, but the Foot and the Kraang have definitely joined forces. That's who the interview is with today- someone from the Foot. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but Leo is tied up in this somehow. I bet that letter explains a bit. The sloppy writing could be from the Kraang, and the seal is from the Foot staking their claim."

Silence fell across the Lair as the TV was muted and Master Splinter, April, and Mikey looked up at us in confusion.

"What letter? What's Raph holding? Where's Leo?" exclaimed Mikey.

Donnie and I exchanged a look silently asking, "Should I tell them, or should you?"


	19. Chapter 18

**Hello lovely readers! I hope y'all are having a great day. I want to say thanks again to all of you amazing people! I never thought anyone would ever read this, and now I'm looking at the stats and so many readers from different countries and I'm over 8,000 views. I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me. So thanks for being awesome, and enjoy this new chapter!**

"My sons, where is your brother?" asked Sensei, his tail twitching in agitation.

"He's… he's gone. We don't know who has him, but we think this letter will explain. Maybe," Donnie stated bravely.

Mikey glared at the both of us like it was our fault that Leo was gone again, which it is, but he doesn't know that nor does he need to. April was looking at us expectantly. She held out her hand asking for the letter, and neither Donnie or I bring ourselves to read it, so we handed it over reluctantly. She settled back into the couch, and holding the envelope far from her body in case it was a trick, cautiously broke the wax seal. Tentatively she lifted the flap and with trembling hands removed a piece of crisp, white paper neatly folded into a rectangle. April unfolded it gently, revealing a short, typed message. Clearing her throat, she began to read. Her voice trembled a bit as she read, but she fared far better than Donnie or I would have.

"Turtles, we have your eldest brother. The Kraang and the Shredder have made a bargain as it mutually beneficial. We Kraang plan on experimenting with mutagen during the interview, but if you try to stop us, the Foot will kill your brother. It is your choice turtles, but know that either way we win," April read.

Her eyes widened as she continued to read, and her hands trembled. I felt rage boiling up within me, how dare they! They take my brother _again_, then waltz around like they own the place? No way, not in my city. I looked at Master Splinter who was holding a crying Mikey. Master Splinter looked torn, as if he was honestly considering letting Leo die, while Mikey was crying in anger and grief. He was completely done with this whole ordeal. When I glanced at Donnie, I found that the genius's eyes were squinted in concentration, he was chewing on his bottom lip and drumming his fingers against his leg. I knew this behavior, Donnie was thinking extremely hard.

"Don? What are you thinking?" I muttered under my breath.

I didn't' want to bring attention to him; no one seemed ready to receive any news he might have.

"I'll tell ya in the lab. Would ya grab April on the way?" he replied quietly before taking off into his lab.

I followed him, but as I passed the couch I tapped April's shoulder and nodded in the direction of the lab. She nodded in understanding before rising to follow me. Master Splinter was too busy thinking and weighing the options to notice, and Mikey had fallen asleep snuggled against the our father's robe.

We walked quietly into the lab, and April slid the door shut behind us. She turned and crossed her arms over her chest, her hip cocked sassily to the side.

"Okay, guys, what's this about?" she whispered, still in stealth mode from our escape from the living room.

"I was going to ask Don the same thing," I muttered, turning to face Donnie expectantly.

"Guys, Leo wasn't kidnapped because Leo was never here," he exclaimed.

"Uh, ya he was. You treated him yourself! We all saw him. He was here, Donnie," I said nervously. Maybe Leo's disappearance was affecting more than I had thought.

"Are you feeling all right?" asked April gently, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes! Well, no, our brother is missing, but I'm not crazy! Here me out. I think I know what's going on," Donnie rambled, shrugging off April's hand without his usual clumsy puppy love.

"Shoot," instructed April, re-crossing her arms and leaning against the counter.

"Okay, so we know that the Kraang had Leo for a long time, right? Well when I was looking through some of their files there was something about advanced cloning. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but think about it for a second. If the Kraang had the ability to clone an exact replica of Leo then tell him that he _was _Leo and give him false memories and place him in the tank, we wouldn't have any clue. Our Leo could have still been at TCRI this whole time while we were taking care of a fake Leo here.

"It explains a lot. His strange memory loss, the way he didn't seem to understand what certain things were or how they worked. If he was a clone with no exposure to the outside world, of course he would have no idea what pizza was or how to a work a TV, or that his favorite show is Space Heroes. While amnesia is a strange thing, it usually doesn't affect memories concerning how to perform tasks or foods. It wouldn't have been hard for the Kraang to switch our Leo for this one while he was in the goo,  
concluded Donnie with a satisfied grin.

April looked at him in shock, while I mulled the idea over in my head.

"It would explain a lot. His strange behavior, the way he doesn't seem to remember any of his training or even how to meditate," I mused.

"It would also explain his health issues, and why he was taken so suddenly. I read in the file, just because it was _fascinating, _that the clones they had created so far had horrible health issues, an aversion to physical stimulation, and die quickly. It would explain why he hated being touched, and it also might be why he was taken; the Kraang new he didn't have much time left," added Donnie.

"Wait, so all this time it wasn't even Leo?!" exclaimed April.

"Exactly," said Donnie.

"Wait! That's why it was so easy to rescue him! It shouldn't have been that easy, we should have known something was up," I groaned.

"Well, that's great, but we have another problem," scoffed April.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Where the heck is the real Leo?" April pointed out, throwing her hands in the air.

"That is a problem, because I have no clue," I growled.

"Well we have two options, he's either with the Foot or still with the Kraang," huffed Donnie.

"Fabulous, but the letter said that if we interfere with the Kraang's plan they'll kill Leo. How will we know if they're killing the real Leo or the clone? And can we let the clone die?" mused April.

"Ummm…," was Donnie's only response.

"Don, do you still have the egg-projector-thingamajig?" I exclaimed suddenly, an idea forming in my mind.

"Ya, why?" asked Donnie in confusion.

April smacked her forehead as she realized what I was thinking. A grin slowly spread across her face.

"Raph! You're a genius!" she yelped excitedly.

"What am I missing here?" grumbled Donnie.

"Okay, you have the egg. Is there a way for you to possibly send a message to the Kraang using that?" I asked.

Donnie looked at me as if I had grown a second head. I allowed myself a smug grin; I was on a role today. I wondered how long it was before my brain decided to turn off again, I felt so empowered when I had ideas that made sense.

"Maybe? I'll tinker a bit more, but it might take a while. Meanwhile, if Leo is out of the goo, why don't you ask Master Splinter to meditate and try to find him? He should be able to contact him," suggested Donnie.

"Good idea. Do you think he'll even bother though? He seemed like he was actually considering letting Leo be killed," I growled angrily.

"We have to try, Raph," sighed Donnie.

"But what if he decides not to?" murmured April.

"Then one of us will try to contact Leo, however if he hasn't contacted us then he may be hurt or scared like he was when he didn't contact us for those first few months," Donnie frowned as he rummaged through one of his drawers of tools.

"Okay, I'll try," I said, walking out of the lab.

"Uh-huh, sure Raph. Hey, April, can you hand me that screw driver? No, not the big one. Thanks," muttered Donnie, completely oblivious to everything as he went into tinkering mode.

I smiled and exchanged an amused look with April as I left. I slipped quietly back into the living room to avoid waking Mikey who was sleeping on the couch. Master Splinter had left, but I could hear him shuffling around inside the dojo. Tiptoeing across the floor, I entered the dojo and slowly shut the door behind me.

"Master Splinter! I have something to tell you," I began.

He started and turned around to face me, his expressions equal parts pride in my stealth and anger that I had snuck up on _him_. He sat down and patted the ground next to him, inviting me to sit. He crossed his legs and laid his hands on his knees in his usual position for meditation. I sat down next to him and mimicked his position.

"What is it, Raphael?" he murmured quietly, his ears were still laid back to his head, a sure sign that he was still agitated.

"Well, Donnie thinks that Leo isn't Leo. I mean, the turtle we rescued wasn't Leo, which is a good thing because that means Leo wasn't kidnapped, have amnesia, had a seizure, or had a concussion," I rambled.

Master Splinter's eyes flew open in shock, and he stared at me in disbelief. His tail began to twitch excitedly, and his long fingers drummed against his knees.

"Surely you are not serious, Raphael? You believe this?" he whispered lowly.

"I do believe it, Sensei. Think about how much of Leo's strange behavior it explains, you can ask Donnie if you have a more technical question. I think this was the Kraang's plan though, that's why it was so easy to rescue him. They planned on taking the clone Leo back from us, which would cripple us even more than we already were because it would be reopening the old wound, and then killing him in front of us. Meanwhile, they would still have the real Leo to use against us in the future," I continued, thinking as I spoke.

My eyes widened as I realized what I had said; I had figured out the Kraang's plan! I needed to tell Donnie and April. We needed to plan a rescue mission! Master Splinter seemed to understand what I was thinking, but then it dawned on me that I still had to ask him to do something.

"Master Splinter, could you maybe try and reach out to our Leo in meditation? You haven't tried to reach him since we found him because you didn't feel the need, but maybe now if you tried you could find him?" I asked hopefully.

"I shall try, my son. Leave now, I will tell you and Donnie if I should find anything. Don't tell Michelangelo, he is not ready for this. For now, we must focus on stopping the Kraang," he responded before shutting his eyes and inhaling deeply.

I left the dojo and started to walk towards the lab, but I couldn't go in there quite yet. I felt lost, I didn't know what to do. I really wanted to bust some heads, but I couldn't leave my family and go out on patrol, they needed me. That was yet another lesson I had learned in Leo's absence. I made another mental note to talk to him when this nightmare was over.

Mikey was still snoring softly on the couch, and the TV was still muted from when Donnie and I had come back from the sewers. It felt like that had happened lifetimes ago, but really it had only been about an hour. I sighed and began to walk through the Lair going nowhere in particular. Eventually, I realized that I had to go back into the lab, and I shuffled my way inside, lost in my own thoughts.

I was greeted by a knife wielding turtle, and a girl with a hammer. I wasn't sure whether to continue inside or back away slowly. Against my better judgment, I continued into the lab, but stopped on the opposite side of the table from April and Donnie; they couldn't reach me if I was over here.

"Hey, guys. How's the egg coming along?" I asked.

"Uh huh, sure Raph, that's great," replied Donnie.

April rolled her eyes.

"We managed to open it, and Don's re-configuring the hard drive and he reversed the polarity of-"started April, but I cut her off.

"April, I didn't understand a word of that, but if it's going to help us kick some Kraang butt later, I'm all for it," I interrupted.

She laughed, "How'd it go with Master Splinter?"

"He's meditating right now, but he also said we need to figure out what the Kraang are up to. I guess the egg isn't first priority in his book right now," I replied.

"Okay, let's figure out what they're up to then. Raph, is Mikey still asleep?" Donnie suddenly joined the conversation.

"Yep, the little twerp is out cold," I joked.

"Great, then let's think about this for a second. The Kraang are letting people into TCRI," started Donnie.

"And we're pretty sure the interview will be with a member of the Foot," added April.

"The Kraang are going to perform an experiment," I commented.

"If we interfere, they kill either Leo or Leo's clone," concluded Donnie.

"Well, we just need to stop the Kraang from experimenting. Let the Foot kill the clone, he's going to die anyways," I growled roughly.

April looked at me as if I was the most uncompassionate creature she had ever seen. Donnie considered my idea for a moment before April hit him; then his view point changed drastically.

"Well, even if they're killing Leo clone, we wouldn't know the difference. How are we going to figure out which Leo is the real Leo?" I cried in exasperation.

Suddenly, Master Splinter flew into the lab, his ears standing upright and his eyes holding a brightness I hadn't seen in a long time. He flashed a toothy grin, and I stared at him in confusion. This was extremely uncharacteristic of Master Splinter. He usually was extremely reserved. Looking around the room, I saw my confusion mirrored in April and Donnie's faces.

"What is it?" asked Donnie.

Master Splinter smiled more widely.

"Donatello, my son, you were right!" he cried, spreading his arms wide in excitement.

The tiny flame of hope that had started in my chest when Donnie presented the idea grew into a roaring fire, and for the first time in a long time, I felt the familiar determination settle into me. I heard April gasp, and Donnie grinned smugly, but his eyes betrayed him. He was just as happy as I was to find out that he was right.

"Well now what do we do?" I asked.


	20. Chapter 19

**Hello lovely readers! Thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites! Y'all, and I know I say this every time but it's true, are the best! Enjoy the new chapter.**

Thump, thud, clap. Thump, thud, clap. Thump, thud, smack. The ball I had aimlessly been bouncing against the wall smacked into my head. I wasn't sure how long I had been playing with the ball, when the Kraang had given it to me, or even how long I had been in this dismal little cell. It was a stone room with one floor to ceiling window looking over Manhattan, so I knew I was still somewhere in TCRI. It's funny, the skyline hasn't changed much in ten years. I sighed as I stood and walked to the window, leaving the ball behind me on the floor.

When the Kraang removed me from the ooze, one of their scientists had looked at me pityingly. They didn't torture me as they had before placing me in the ooze, instead they silently brought me to this cell.

"What's going on? What are you going to do with me? Where are my brothers?" I had asked as my mind slowly came back to me.

The Kraang looked at me in pity again, and in a harsh bark replied, "The turtle which is known as Leonardo is to be placed inside that which is a cell. Kraang no longer have interest in that which is known as the turtle which is Leonardo, the turtle no longer has a purpose in that which is known as the plan that is the plan of Kraang."

I was confused, if they no longer needed me, then why were they taking me out of the ooze? Suddenly, a terrifying thought occurred to me. I turned to the Kraang as he (she? It?) shoved me into the cell.

"How long was in the ooze?" I asked nervously; I was afraid of the answer.

"Turtle which is known as Leonardo, you have been in that which is known as the ooze for the measurement of time which is known as a decade," he croaked before slamming the door in my face.

I barely remember what I did after that. My head was reeling. Did that mean that my family had never come for me? That was good; I hadn't wanted them to. They probably thought I was dead, and had thought I was dead for the last ten years. I started to cry as I realized that I was no longer a big brother. All my brothers were 26 now, and if I did manage to go back to them, I would be the baby. To shell with being the "Fearless Leader", Raph was probably taking care of them all now. I wondered if Master Splinter was doing well, or if he was even still alive. He had been old when I left, and many things can happen in ten years. Many things can change, except for the Manhattan skyline. I often meditate looking out over the city; it calms me and helps me to remember a better time.

I highly doubted that I would ever see my family again. I had accepted that I would never see Mikey's goofy grin, hear Raph's snarky comments, watch Donnie hack into a computer, meditate with Master Splinter, or watch Space Heroes with April ever again. It hurt, and I often found myself wishing that the High Kraang had just killed me instead of placing me back into this cruel world. My life had lost all meaning, but I still trained every day.

At first it was hard because of the bullet wound in my plastron, but eventually that healed. I cleaned it every day with a bit of my water ration the way Donnie had taught me, and slowly but surely it healed. After that, I began to run laps around my cell every day, do pushups, sit ups, and practice the katas I could do without my katana. Despite all my training and meditation, I still had time to think and it started to bring me into a dark place.

The Kraang had stripped me of everything that made me who I was. I lost my family, my weapons, my mask, my health, my sanity, and for a short time even my life. The Kraang were responsible for all of it. In my eyes, they were worse than the Shredder because I knew that he would have killed me after I had lost my usefulness. He would have tortured me, and it would have been painful, but then it would have been _done_. I wanted to be done.

I broke out of thoughts and sat down with my back to the window. I decided to meditate; I couldn't think too much, or I would get depressed. I crossed my legs and laid my hands on my knees. Now that I was allowed to meditate, I could contact my family, but that would endanger them. It was difficult, and it was frustrating, but I could not contact them. I shut my eyes and began to concentrate on taking my mind away from my body. I felt my spirit begin to travel through the astral plane until I reached a door. I willed myself closer and walked through the now open doorway into the Lair. It was the exact same way it was every time I visited, and it calmed me. I used to go to an open field with a large tree in the middle when I meditated, but that was before I was taken. Now, I preferred to picture myself at home. The Lair was my safe haven, and everything was just as it should be except for the fact that it was always too quiet. My family was never here, but the Lair in my mind always looked like they were about to come bursting back in at any moment.

I wandered around for a little bit before sitting down on the couch. I always did this before I left; I always sat on the couch. It was our gathering place, and I always felt closest to my brothers here, at least, close to the brothers I remember. I could probably spirit travel and watch over them, but I can't bring myself to do it. I want to remember them how they remember me. I took a deep breath, stood, and walked back out the door into the real world.

The cold, hard stone surrounding me came flying back, and the musty smell of the cell assaulted me as I came back to reality. I stood up and stretched before stooping to pick up the ball on the ground beside me. As much as I hated the Kraang, I thanked God every day that they had given me that ball. It was my only source of entertainment.

I took a few steps back and chucked the little red rubber ball at the wall with everything I had. It flew back to me just as hard, and I began to play a one person game of wall ball. I was completely absorbed in the game that I didn't notice that there was a new presence in the room. To notice anything I would have to stop playing, and if I stopped playing, I started thinking, and I couldn't do that. I continued to play for a while before finally leaning my shell against the wall and sliding down into a sitting position. I wrapped my arms around my knees and bowed my head. I was fighting back tears, but why bother? No one could see me here anyways; no one cared. I was a lonely, defeated turtle stuck in a time where I didn't belong.

The tears fell slowly at first, but soon turned into loud sobs that racked my pathetic, weak body. I wanted my brothers more than I had ever wanted anything. I wanted to wake up in my room at home to find that this was all one crazy nightmare. I wanted to play video games with Mikey, train with Raph, and build with Donnie. I wanted to run, and spar, and joke, and laugh, and feel something other than despair. I wanted to live. I wasn't living; I was merely existing.

Finally I noticed a presence in the room, and I noticed that it was coming closer to me rather quickly. More out of basic instinct rather than interest, I lifted my heavy head and looked up. I scrambled against the wall looking for anyway to get away from the creature before me because this meant that I had finally lost my mind. I had actually lost my mind. That was the only possible explanation for Master Splinter standing in my cell looking down at me.

"Leonardo, my son, is that you?" 'he' asked nervously.

The hallucination seemed concerned, but I guess I was just seeing what I wanted. I wanted someone to care, and the want had manifested itself in my father.

"Leonardo?" it asked again.

"Stay away. I'm not ready to be crazy yet. Come back in a few days, okay? Let me have my shred of sanity for a bit longer," I responded.

I hoped that bargaining would work, but the rat didn't go away. Actually he came closer and laid a furry paw on my shoulder.

"My son, what has happened to you? Don't you recognize me?" it asked, actually sounding quite terrified at the idea that I didn't remember it.

That was ridiculous. Of course I remembered my family. Why would I be hallucinating that I didn't? I guessed I had no control over how I hallucinated. It was probably better just to go along with it.

"Of course I remember you. However, as I said before, I'm not crazy enough to be hallucinating yet. Nope, I'm not ready for that. Please go away. Maybe you can meet me in the Lair later," I mused.

Master Splinter seemed confused.

"My son, I am not a hallucination. This is me, I'm spirit travelling. You used it to contact us, don't you remember?"

"Oh, I remember, but that was ten years ago. You guys all think I'm dead, so why would you be contacting me now? That is why this is all a hallucination," I reasoned.

"Ten years ago?" Master Splinter asked in confusion.

Everything I said seemed to have that effect on him. With everything I said, the hallucination grew more confused. It was somewhat annoying actually, but hallucination or not, I would not lose my temper with Master Splinter at least I had some company other than the ball for now.

"Yes. The Kraang told me that I had been in the ooze for ten years. Now I'm just sitting here drifting away, I guess. Of course, you know all this because you're me, but it is nice to actually have someone to talk to. I was pretty sure I was going to start talking to myself soon! Actually, I guess that's what this is, isn't it? Haha, if only Raph could see this. He's give me shell for this. I wish I could talk to him. Well, I wish I could talk to all of them really. Mikey, Donnie, April. I miss everyone, but they're safe and that's what matters. I wonder what's happened in the last ten years…," I rambled before drifting off into thought.

Master Splinter looked at me in abject horror. I reflected on what I said, and I realized that I had probably sounded crazy, but that's okay because I am. I can be crazy with myself now! What fun. Maybe I'll hallucinate with Mikey next, and I can pull pranks on myself!

"Leonardo, it has not been ten years. It has only been a few weeks! My son, please, come back to me. Don't lose yourself; focus on me. Come back, Leonardo," he pleaded softly.

He seemed extremely upset, and I wished I could help him, but I couldn't even help myself.

"You're just saying that because that's what I wish it was. I'm sorry Master Splinter, but the last time I talked to any of you was ten years ago. Everyone has moved on with their lives; I just can't do that with mine. I will always be stuck here," I groaned, hanging my head back down dejectedly.

"Leonardo, please, listen to me. I am not a hallucination, it really is me!" urged Master Splinter.

"I wish," I moaned.

"Leonardo! This is ridiculous, my son. Where is the brave, strong boy I knew? Come back to me," he instructed angrily.

In that moment I knew it was Master Splinter. I knew that it was really, truly Master Splinter. As for the few weeks rather than ten years thing, I still wasn't sure if that was true, but I did know that it really was Master Splinter standing before me. I smiled, my first smile in over ten years, and an unfamiliar feeling of warmth spread through my chest. Was that happiness?

"Father?" I asked slowly, cautiously.

I looked up at him, my hopeful grin stretching from ear to ear. I _wasn't _alone; my father was here! He was here!

"Yes, Leonardo," he whispered softly.

He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me in a ghostly hug. I couldn't feel his arms around me since he was just a projection, but it was comforting nonetheless.

"How are the guys?" I asked excitedly.

"They are doing well, Leonardo. However, your absence has been hard on them," he said sadly.

"Wouldn't they have gotten over it by now? It's been ten years. They probably think I'm dead. I thought you all thought I was dead. Why did you come to find me?" I asked suddenly.

"I never stopped looking, my son. We missed you," he said comfortingly.

He seemed to have given up on trying to convince me that it hadn't been ten years.

"What have you guys been up to?" I asked curiously; I had so many questions!

"We have mostly been hunkered down in the Lair. Raphael goes top side sometimes to 'bust some heads' as he puts it. Let's see… Mikey has visited April a few times, and Donnie and Raph explored the sewers," he said cautiously.

He was hiding something. Had something happened to one of my brothers? He said that Mikey had visited April a few times, but it had been ten years. Did that mean that Mikey…? Oh please no, not Mikey. Not Mikey. I felt panic well up inside me, and Master Splinter noticed. Concern flashed across his face, and he looked at me nervously.

"Leonardo, what is wrong?"

"You said… you said that Mikey visited April a _few _times. It's been ten years. When did Mikey go?" I choked out, completely convinced my baby brother was dead.

Master Splinter's eyes grew wide in understanding and horror, and he waved his hands in front of his face.

"No no no no! Michelangelo, as well as all your other brothers, are fine! Everyone is fine! Leonardo, it really has not been more than a few months," he assured me.

I was beginning to believe him a little bit. Suddenly, I heard the jingle of the keys in the door. The Kraang droid with my daily ration of food was coming.

"You have to leave, they're coming! Tell the guys I miss them," I hissed quietly.

Master Splinter waved to me as he slowly faded away. The droid walked in and dropped the plate in front of my feet.

"That which is known as the prisoner which is 2388 must eat that which is known as the meal now," it instructed before marching out and slamming the door behind it.

I sighed. The droid was yet another reminder of everything the Kraang had taken from me. I used to have a name. They used to use it. Now I was merely the 2,388 prisoner they have held here. My mind wandered back to Master Splinter's visit.

Had I imagined it all? Was it all just a dream? No, it couldn't have been. Master Splinter had been here; my brothers were fine; and, I hadn't been in here ten years. The Kraang had lied. Rage boiled in my veins; the Kraang had lied to me, and I had given up. I had resigned myself to die here without a fight. Well, not anymore. I didn't care if it was ten years in the future or not; Master Splinter's visit proved that my family still needed me, and I was going to go home to them.

I left my watery soup and moldy bread untouched, and moved over to the window. I looked out over the Manhattan skyline as the sun slowly sunk behind them, outlining each of them perfectly. A feeling of peace and determination settled over me as I began to plan my escape. The plan had to be foolproof because one mess up, and I was done. They would kill me; and I needed to get home.

I thought long and hard, barely ever moving from my spot by the window. The fat full moon sat heavily in the sky, and a few lonely stars managed to make it through the hazy night sky. I had almost given up on finding an idea that would work when the moons light illuminated the red rubber ball sitting innocently in the corner, and a plan began to form in my mind. I was going home; and that ball was going to get me there.


	21. Chapter 20

**Hello lovely readers! I am so so so so so sorry for the long update, but I've been working on a new story and something for the 30****th**** anniversary. It's so hard to write three things at once! Anyways, I'll try and put another chapter up soon :). In other news, I have a new poll up on my profile page. Please check it out! Enjoy the new chapter and have a great day!**

Everyone completely ignored my question. April was still staring at Master Splinter in surprise, but Donnie had gone into thinking overdrive. Another thought dawned on me, Mikey should know about this. I started to leave the lab to wake him, but Master Splinter stopped me.

"Raphael, where are you going?" he asked, reverting back to his formal, reserved self.

"I'm going to get Mikey. Knucklehead should know about this," I stated before trying to get past Master Splinter again.

"No. Michelangelo should stay oblivious to this; we need all his focus to be on defeating the Kraang," he instructed.

Silence fell, and we literally heard a pin drop as Donnie accidentally knocked one off his desk. I was confused. Master Splinter had said the Leo was alive, and well, somewhere with the Kraang. He wasn't the sick, amnesiac turtle we had been taking care of, so what was Master Splinter saying? Did he intend to leave the real Leo with the Kraang?

"But, aren't we rescuing Leo?" asked Donnie, clearly as confused as I was.

"No, my sons. The imminent threat of the Kraang and Foot take priority. Your brother would be of no help to us in his current condition anyways," said Master Splinter coldly.

I could see the pain in his eyes, but I chose to ignore it. The fact that he really was considering leaving Leo was infuriating. I couldn't believe he had just said that.

"What happened to family first?" I growled angrily, trying to give him a chance to take back what he had said.

"I'm sorry, my sons, but this is what Leo would have wanted," he stated.

_Would have wanted? _Why was Sensei talking about Leo in past tense?! The words weren't lost on Donnie either who was staring at Sensei intently. I knew what Donnie was doing, and if I was not so angry, I would have smiled. Donnie was completely analyzing Master Splinter and trying to figure what was wrong. I was still seething, and against my better judgment, I went after Master Splinter.

"Since when do you know anything about what Leo wanted? He was always the leader, always having to do extra practice. I bet he wants to be here with us right now. I bet he wants to watch Space Heroes, and play games with Mikey, and fix the Shell Raiser with Donnie! You have no right to tell us what he wants! And what's with the _would have_? He's still alive, you just told us he was?" I exploded.

Months of pent up anger and frustration from having to be the responsible, big brother was poured into those words, and they came out as more of a bark. I was livid, and I stared down my Sensei angrily. He met my gaze with infuriatingly calm eyes.

"Your brother is not well, Raphael. That is 'what's with the _would have_'. Your brother as you remember him would want us to save the world. Besides if we don't save the world and instead save your brother, there will be no world to bring him back to," he stated firmly.

I growled in frustration, but his words troubled me. Clearly Leo wasn't going to be at his best after being held by the Kraang for so long, but the way Sensei was talking, it was almost like he was nervous about something. Master Splinter would worry about us when we left, but he was never nervous. He always had complete confidence in us, so what was this?

"He's fading isn't he?" Donnie suddenly remarked.

I wheeled around to face him. Donnie looked sad, but also determined. April met my confused glare and shrugged. Master Splinter sighed heavily and met Donnie's inquisitive gaze.

"Yes, my son, he is. However, he's fighting it. He's not the same, but there's a chance that we can bring him back," he answered.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" I growled.

"Raph, Leo is losing his mind. He's probably either been tortured or been in solitary confinement this whole time. That's almost too much for anyone to take. We need to get him out of there soon, but Master Splinter's right. We need to stop whatever the Kraang are planning first," explained Donnie.

"Wait, so Leo's going crazy?" asked April, hoping someone would contradict her.

"I'm afraid that's right, April. He believed that he had been in the ooze for ten years and that we all thought he was dead. He thought I was a hallucination and asked me to go away; he said he wasn't ready to be crazy yet. He's fighting," said Sensei.

I heard a gasp behind me, and I turned to see Mikey standing there. His innocent blue eyes were the size of saucers.

"WHAT?! But, Leo was just here, and he was fine!" exclaimed Mikey.

Master Splinter shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Donnie winced, and I looked at Mikey sadly. Inwardly, I sighed. It was time to go into Big Brother mode. His wide eyes were confused and angry as he realized he'd been left out.

"Look, Mikey, it's kind of complicated, and we didn't want to upset you-"I started.

Mikey cut me off.

"No. You guys all think I'm the baby. You all think I'm the dumb goofball who can't handle anything serious, but in case you hadn't noticed, I can handle these things! Raph, when you went off the deep end when Leo first disappeared, who kept you grounded? Who made sure you didn't get hurt or do something stupid? That's right! ME! And, Donnie, when you got all hung up and started drowning yourself in your work, who made sure you had something to eat? Who put that pillow and blanket on your chair? That's right- ME! I do so much for you guys, and I'm not oblivious. Stop treating me like I'm a baby," he exploded.

I was taken aback. I had always taken Mikey for granted, or underestimated him, or made fun of him. He had always notice; he had always known. Donnie's eyes had nearly bugged out of his head, and he was frowning in embarrassment. Mikey was staring at us all expectantly, but he was angrier than I had ever seen him. No one seemed to want to talk, so I stepped forward.

"Leo isn't here anymore," I started, but instantly regretted choice of words as I glanced at Mikey's horrified face, "I mean, he was kidnapped, but the thing Donnie figured out is that it wasn't really Leo? Ummmm, he was a clone. And, well, ya see, the real Leo, _our _Leo, is somewhere in the Kraang building slowly losing his mind- but that's okay because it means he's alive and not injured and not with the Foot! Master Splinter talked to him," I finished.

Mikey was staring at me in complete confusion while Donnie had face palmed behind me. April was struggling not to laugh at my feeble attempt at explaining the situation.

"Wait, how is Leo going crazy better than him being amnesiac?" asked Mikey.

I raised an eye ridge. Out of all the information I had just given Mikey, all the crazy almost unbelievable information involving clones and the Foot clan that is what he chose to ask?

"My son, what is important is that your brother is still alive," said Master Splinter.

"We're going to get him back, right?" he asked quietly.

"Michelangelo, we have to stop the Kraang first and then we may rescue your brother," Master Splinter said slowly.

I began to get angry again, but Mikey shot me a look. He knew exactly what I was about to do, and he was warning me not to do it. I bit my tongue and waited to see what would happen.

"That's what Leo would want," Mikey said quietly, clearly as displeased as the rest of us.

"All right then. Donnie, start hacking those Kraang bases like there's no tomorrow. April, you help him. Mikey, you and I are going topside to do some surveillance on the Foot. It's daytime, so we're going to have to be extra careful. Master Splinter, I don't know what you usually do while we're gone, but do that," I commanded.

I was still the leader, and until Leo came home I was going to act like it. Mikey stopped looking depressed and had assumed a goofy smile. He was trying to cheer us all up and pretend like something bad wasn't about to happen. Donnie turned and practically dragged April over to the computer with him. Master Splinter nodded at Mikey and I.

"Be safe, my sons," he said, his tail twitching nervously.

"We will. Be good Braniac, April," I said, nodding in their directions.

April waved and Donnie grinned. Mikey and I turned and headed out towards the sewers. As we jumped over the turnstiles into the dank tunnels, Mikey let out a loud whoop.

"Booyakasha!" he yelled and took off into the dark.

Laughing, I followed the knuckle head. We ran quickly but quietly through the sewers, our feet barely making a sound despite the many puddles. Finally we reached the ladder leading up to the manhole cover near the Foot Headquarters. I smiled grimly when I saw the red blaze next to the ladder. Marking the tunnels had been Donnie's idea, but Leo and I had been the ones to go out and paint everything. We had both come back covered head to toe in paint, much to Master Splinter's annoyance, but it was one of my favorite memories with Leo since he had become leader.

It was a few months after he had been appointed leader, and our once close friendship had been crumbling. I felt like he was cold and aloof, and I didn't want to be bossed around by anyone, especially not him. Master Splinter had told us to go out in the tunnels together, and it was the first time in months I saw Leo come out of his shell and be goofy. When we were little, he and I always took care of Donnie and Mikey but we were also the trouble makers. Mikey never meant to get in trouble, but we did. That Leo had disappeared and was replaced a responsible Leo a few months before we started going topside. He had only grown more responsible and protective once he was crowned leader. However, on this run, he had come back just a bit. We had gotten into a paint war as we ran and almost ran out which made us laugh even more. He had been laughing and smiling, and after that run he wasn't as tense. He loosened up just enough to be fun again. Sure, we still butted head a ton, but we got along more.

Memories of painting the tunnels filled my head, but Mikey snapped me out of it.

"C'mon, Raphie, get your head in the game. We have to go topside now," he reminded me.

"Don't call me that," I growled lowly.

Mikey only chuckled and started singing some stupid song from a movie about singing high-schoolers.

"Gotta getcha getcha head in the game…," taunted Mikey, knowing I hated the movie.

"Shut up, Mikey!" I growled again, this time in annoyance.

Carefully, I climbed up the ladder and slid the manhole cover off. I poked my head out cautiously, the unexpected sunlight burning my eyes. I blinked and looked around, the coast was clear. Looking down, I beckoned for Mikey to follow me and took off towards the dumpsters next to the Foot's headquarters. Being a ninja isn't always glamorous. We crouched next to the dumpsters and waited for a patrol to pass before jumping up and launching ourselves up onto the roof of the building. Some Foot idiot had like sky lights, which was a major weakness for them but great for us. Mikey and I sat next to the glass and peered in curiously.

Mikey breathed in sharply at the sight beneath us. The Leo clone was tied to a chair and had been brutally beaten. A team of Foot ninja stood around him laughing and taunting him. Suddenly, another ninja came flying and yelled something about a boss coming, and they all snapped to attention. Suddenly, the Shredder himself flanked by Karai and Dogpound entered the room. I growled, and Mikey scowled. Dogpound cocked his head, his ears straining for a sound, and we both fell silent. The Shredder walked up to the clone and pushed his chin up to meet his gaze. Karai looked away, disgust written all over her face.

"So, the fearless leader Leonardo, is at least mine. Tell me, freak, have you enjoyed your stay?" snarled the Shredder.

"The service could be a bit better, but other than that it's been great. I could do with a few less beatings, ya know what I mean?" replied the clone with Leo-level cockiness.

Mikey and I exchanged a smirk; the Kraang had certainly cloned that aspect of Leo perfectly. We looked back down just in time to see the clone get a smack across the face that left three horizontal gashes across his face from the gauntlet. He winced, but bit back his cry, again something Leo would do. Despite the fact that I knew it wasn't Leo, it hurt to watch someone hurt someone who looked exactly like my brother.

"You dare to mock me, turtle? We'll see how you mock me when I kill your brothers one by one in front of you, slowly, painfully, and I will finish by killing that rat you call a father. They will come looking for you sooner or later, the Kraang promised us that," he barked an evil, stereotypical, yet bone chilling laugh.

"They won't come for me. I've always told them not to, they wouldn't be that stupid. What do the Kraang have to do with this?" asked the clone, acting exactly like Leo.

He had never acted this much like Leo before; it was fairly terrifying. I couldn't help but imagine that it was really Leo down there. Clearly the Foot didn't know that they had been fooled, and it was probably better to keep it that way.

"The Kraang, of course, traded us you for the clone. That was our agreement, but of course you had to go and escape and complicate things. Now the plan has been set back at least a few hours, maybe a day. However, it will work. You see, there is no evil plan devised by the Kraang or anything, Leonardo. We, that is the Foot and the Kraang, were tired of you meddling turtles and reached an agreement to dispose of all of you. When they captured you, our window of opportunity arrived and we seized it. You were cloned, and your pathetic family rescued it instead of you, playing right into our hands. We lulled them into a false sense of security while placing you in a situation we knew would slowly tear you apart. You would be helpless, scared, and alone while your family would believe they had you and would never come looking for you. It was all going well until Donatello figured out about the clone _after _we kidnapped him, of course, so we couldn't do damage control.

"Then you escaped because that stupid rat contacted you. Our plan fell apart, but now we've found a way to fix the plan. Your brothers are going to try and stop the Kraang from 'doing' whatever fake plan they've come up with, and when they do we'll present you and the clone at the same time. They'll have to decide which one is real, and the other will die. You will die, Leonardo. Today. They will not know that it is you, and when you die and we reveal their mistake they will fall apart. The once mighty turtles will be so grief-stricken that they will be easily struck down! Oh, the irony is wonderful!" he cackled darkly.

Karai was grinning maliciously behind him, and Dogpound's tail had started to wag in excitement. My head was reeling. That… that turtle down there, was Leo?! He had escaped? We had to rescue him, but how? Would he want us to? If it was true that the Kraang really had no plan? If that was the case, then there was no reason for us to go there. We could rescue Leo! But, what if this wasn't Leo?! I was extremely confused, and my head hurt with all the 'what ifs' floating around. Over-thinking was Donnie's department, sometimes Leo's, never mind. I could not deal with this, I was more of a 'smash-first-and-think-later' guy. Now, there was nothing to smash, except apparently, my brain. Looking up, I saw my confusion mirrored in Mikey's eyes.

"Raph, what the shell is going on?" whispered Mikey.

"I have no idea, bro," I replied, but I guess I was too loud because Dogpound looked up and glared at us.

"The turtles! Get them!" he yelled, pointing a furry paw towards the skylight where we were sitting.

Leo/clone/whoever's eyes widened in horror, and he immediately whipped his head up to see. Pure terror filled his eyes and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Raph! Mikey! Get out of here! Get out of here, and don't come back! GO!"

As we fled the building for the safety of the sewers, there was not a doubt in either of our minds that had been the real Leo, _our _Leo. I dodged a ninja star, and Mikey whapped someone over the head with a nun chuck in a panic as we ran. Finally we made it to the manhole cover and dove in, replacing the cover as fast as we could. In the dim light of the tunnels, I stared at Mikey with my eyes wide, and he stared back at me with his eyes bugging out of his head.

"_Dude_… That was Leo! What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, Mikey. I don't know," I growled for the second time that day.


	22. Chapter 21

**Hello lovely readers! Thanks for all the reviews in the last chapter, and again I'm sorry for the long update. Final exams are this week for me, and I have six! Whoopdedoo. I'm going to shamelessly ask for y'all to please check out my poll, as I would like to start on another story but have a **_**terrific**_** case of writer's block. :( Any who, thanks for reading, and have a great day!**

I stared looking out over the city. I was holding the ball in my hand, but I had cupped it in my hands so that it was nearly invisible. I took a deep breath, if this plan didn't work I would die. I knew this with certainty. Thoughts of my brothers crowded my mind, and I readied myself for the danger ahead. Clutching the ball as if my life depended on it, I slowly rose and took one last look out the window to the Manhattan skyline before turning and walking to the door. The Kraang with my usual ration of food would be coming soon, and I knew that if I could disable him and grab his key card, I could escape.

I pressed myself against the wall of the cell and waited. After a few agonizing minutes, I heard the mechanical clacking of the Kraang. I heard the familiar sound of the keycard swiping through the lock, the click of the door being pushed open, and finally the confused warble of the droid as it scans the room for me. Realizing too late what has happened, I am upon it with a fury that would put the Shredder to shame. Throwing punches, kicking, dodging, pushing, and pulling we fought until finally I slammed the droid face first into a wall. Sparks flew as it stood there twitching, and I lunged for the liberating key card. I considered grabbing the gun, but it was too bulky and would slow me down.

Clutching the card and the ball tightly, I fled the room, slamming the door behind me. The droid was still standing there mutely twitching, and it should be a while before anyone noticed I had been replaced. Looking around, I found myself in a stark, white hall with very few doors. A set of chrome elevator doors sat at the end of the hall. I grinned, I had been planning on using an elevator. I glanced to the left and noticed a case with a fire extinguisher inside it. An ax had been placed atop it, and a message in the Kraang's strange language was scrawled across the glass. I was pretty sure the message was similar to "In emergency, use the ax to break the glass". It's weird to think of the Kraang actually needing something like that; it made them seem just a bit more alive. I grabbed the ax and stood in the hallway contemplating my next move. I remembered from being moved to my previous cell to the ooze that there had been panic buttons strategically placed throughout the hallway.

I spied one of the glowing, red buttons out of the corner of my eye. Clenching my teeth, I pressed the button then ran at the speed of light towards the elevator. A small ledge hung over the doors, and I sat on it, waiting for the doors to open. I clutched the ball so hard my fingers started to ache, but I had to be ready. Finally, a perky 'ding' rang through the hallway, and a small army of Kraang droids charged out with their guns raised. One of the creatures turned to its counterparts when it realized they were staring at an empty hallway.

"Kraang asks Kraang, why are we up here again?"

"And Kraang tells Kraang it is because some Kraang pushed that which is known as the button of panic," responded the other.

"Then where is the Kraang that was the Kraang that pushed that which is the button of panic?"

"Kraang does not know the answer to that which is the question of Kraang. Maybe there is that which is known as an enemy loose in the place that is the place of Kraang."

The Kraang all raised their guns again at this statement and stood at the ready. With a grin, I took one last look at the ball before chucking it with all my might as far away from me as I could get it. It hit the ground about halfway down the hall, and continued to roll away. Two dozen identical Kraang heads whipped around and watched it roll before they took off after it like they were possessed. Stifling a laugh, I watched them go and swung into the still open doors of the elevator with a satisfying feeling of victory. Once in the elevator, I pressed the button for the ground floor, knowing there would be an exit there. Instead of going down, however, the elevator began to rise.

"Shell," I muttered.

Someone on a higher floor must have called it. I shimmied my weakened body ungracefully to the ceiling of the elevator and into the shaft above. I sat atop the elevator facing cables and a dingy, oily wall. I heard the familiar clanking of Kraang droids getting into the elevator, and shivered involuntarily. I couldn't be caught, I was so close to freedom. I could practically taste freedom, which for some reason I imagined as pizza. That's it; when I get home I'll eat pizza and then I'll know for sure that this isn't one of the creepy simulation they used to put me through. The croak of a Kraang drifted up through the ceiling into the shaft, and I held my breath in case they somehow heard that as well.

"Kraang asks Kraang what those that are known as idiots are doing on the floor that is the floor of the prisoners," croaked one of the droids.

"Kraang tells Kraang that Kraang does not know what those Kraang are doing on the floor that is the floor of the prisoners," replied another.

"Kraang wants those Kraang to stop as they are making what is known as a mess," the first Kraang croaked.

Suddenly the elevator jerked to a stop, and the doors slid open. The Kraang left, and I jumped back down into the elevator. I continued the rest of my elevator ride uninterrupted, cheesy elevator music grating on my nerves the whole way down. I stayed alert, but my thoughts began to wonder as I stood in the middle of the steel box.

I couldn't wait to see my brothers. It didn't matter if it had been ten years; I needed them. I was disgusted with myself for even thinking that I didn't want to see them. I had been extremely out of it when I had been removed from the goo. Actually, now that I had a moment to think about it, I had been more than extremely out of it. I was slightly out of my mind. I had lost everything that had made who I was. I was scared, and even now I was scared. I was terrified of losing my new found freedom, of losing my brothers, of never seeing my family again. Before I could dwell on this thought for too long, the elevator jerked to a halt, and the floor 1 button stopped glowing. I was at the point of no return.

I pushed myself against the wall of the elevator, out of sight from the door in case someone, or _something_, should come into the elevator. I quickly peeked my head out around the door frame, and to my surprise, the lobby was empty. I could see across the lobby and out the big glass doors, and to my surprise I realized it was night. The street lights lit the sidewalk outside of the door, and the New York City street was surprisingly quiet.

I checked the lobby one last time for people or Kraang before running across the hard, marble floor to the door. I swiped the stolen keycard through the lock, dropped the repulsive plastic, and ran out into the night.

I was free.

Finally, after months, maybe years, of waiting, I was free. I could go home. It was the only thought I could think of as I flew down dark alleys and across streets. I was searching for a man hole, a familiar metal disk with four green, and one brown dot painted on. It was basically our front door. Suddenly, I saw it. It was sitting there in front of me, welcoming me into the dark, familiar sewers when I heard a sound behind me. I whirled around, crouching into a fighting stance.

My arms began to shake; the adrenaline rush from my escape was wearing off, and I was exhausted. Everything was still again, and I started to make my way to the cover when I heard it again. This time when I turned around, I found myself confronted by an army of black clad warriors. They seemed familiar, and a memory began to tug at the corner of my mind.

_Foot ninja_. Oh, shell. There were maybe twenty, and ordinarily I could take them down, but today was not ordinary. I was weakened, exhausted, and missing my katana. I didn't stand a chance, but I couldn't flee and run home because they would follow me. I prepared to fight, and the ninja sprung.

My movements were clumsy, and I took hit after hit, but adrenaline soon kicked in and I was able to at least defend myself a bit. I punched a ninja in the face and he went down; another followed him as I kicked. I was punching, kicking, jumping, and dodging just trying to get away. Suddenly, the onslaught stopped and all the ninja snapped to attention.

I grimaced, both in pain and annoyance. Something was about to go down, and it was going to bad. I braced myself and stood up straight, ready to face whatever Foot official had decided to come and try and take me. A dark shadow started to approach me. It was enormous, tall and wide with red glowing eyes. I gulped and tried to hide my rising terror as the realization of who was coming towards me sunk in. I didn't want to believe it. I had to believe it. A shining, silver gauntlet came into the dim light of the street lamp, and it was followed by a large black arm, spiked shoulder pads, and a helmet that warped the reflection of my terrified face. The Shredder. He was here.

"Hello turtle," he spat, as if it was some kind of bad word.

"Shredder," I growled back lowly.

"It's been a long time. I've been looking forward to this," he said with a low chuckle.

"Looking forward to what?"

"Killing you. But first, you will suffer as you have made me suffer. Do not resist, or I will find your brothers and subject them to the same torture. I dislike them, but without you they are minor annoyance that I will not waste my time on. My fight is with you. Seize him," he growled lowly before spinning on his heel and disappearing into the darkness.

The ninja crowded me from all sides and bound my wrists. They prodded me along like an animal, taunting me the whole way.

"Freak."

"Coward."

"Pathetic."

"Failure."

The words were hissed in silent tones but slowly the ninja grew bolder and the taunts became crueler and louder until my ears were ringing. After the most agonizing walk of my life, I found myself at Foot headquarters. Bradford approached me, and with a malicious grin knocked me over the head. His grinning, furry face was the last thing I saw before the darkness took me.

I awoke in a room, tied to a chair, beneath a skylight. I was completely surrounded by Foot ninja, and they were staring at me maliciously. The door to the room cracked open a little and a voice intoned, "He's awake."

"Good. You may begin," replied the voice outside the door.

The door shut with a small click, and everything was still for a moment, and then all shell broke loose. The ninjas began to approach me, some holding weapons, other with their fists clenched. I began to struggle against my bindings, trying to get loose but to no avail. The first ninja made his move, and then a flurry of punches, stabs, cuts, and slaps began to accost me. The pain was incredible, but I held back my scream. I couldn't let them know that they were hurting me. I couldn't let them win.

Their hits became harder and more vicious as they grew increasingly frustrated with my silence. Suddenly, it stopped. I heard the door open again, and the same voice that had caused the onslaught earlier whispered, "Enough."

The ninjas parted, and I was left to sit in peace. Blood dripped down my head and everything hurt. I bowed my head and shut my eyes, trying to block out the pain. I couldn't believe it. I had escaped. I had been so close that I could taste Mikey's pizza, hear Raph throwing punches, and see the smoke puffing from Donnie's latest experiment. I had almost been home, and now I would never see it again. My brothers didn't know where I was, they didn't even know that I had been with the Kraang. They weren't going to come for me. Two shadows flickered over the skylight for a second, and a flutter of hope dwelled in my heart. It was quickly extinguished when I realized that there was no way that was brother, or possibly brothers.

The ninja began to mock me and taunt me when suddenly one of them came flying in and slammed the door behind him.

"He's coming!" he practically screamed.

A hush immediately fell over the ninja and they snapped to attention. Suddenly, the door flew open with a bang and the Shredder, Dogpound, and Karai walked in. Dogpound cocked his head as if listening for something, and Karai took one look at me before looking away in disgust and a bit of guilt. Good, she should feel guilty for everything she and her horrible step father have done to me. I am her brother, but of course she doesn't know that.

The Shredder walked up to me and crossed his gauntleted arms over his chest.

"So, the fearless leader Leonardo, is at least mine. Tell me, freak, have you enjoyed your stay?" snarled the Shredder.

"The service could be a bit better, but other than that it's been great. I could do with a few less beatings, ya know what I mean?" I replied sarcastically; I wasn't going to let him see how scared I was; I had to stay strong.

"You dare to mock me, turtle? We'll see how you mock me when I kill your brothers one by one in front of you, slowly, painfully, and I will finish by killing that rat you call a father. They will come looking for you sooner or later, the Kraang promised us that," he growled.

A feeling of despair sank in my gut. The Kraang were working with Shredder. Sure, why not? My family couldn't come looking for me, they couldn't! They wouldn't.

"They won't come for me. I've always told them not to, they wouldn't be that stupid. What do the Kraang have to do with this?" I told him angrily.

"The Kraang, of course, traded us you for the clone. That was our agreement, but of course you had to go and escape and complicate things. Now the plan has been set back at least a few hours, maybe a day. However, it will work. You see, there is no evil plan devised by the Kraang or anything, Leonardo. We, that is the Foot and the Kraang, were tired of you meddling turtles and reached an agreement to dispose of all of you. When they captured you, our window of opportunity arrived and we seized it. You were cloned, and your pathetic family rescued it instead of you, playing right into our hands. We lulled them into a false sense of security while placing you in a situation we knew would slowly tear you apart. You would be helpless, scared, and alone while your family would believe they had you and would never come looking for you. It was all going well until Donatello figured out about the clone _after _we kidnapped him, of course, so we couldn't do damage control.

"Then you escaped because that stupid rat contacted you. Our plan fell apart, but now we've found a way to fix the plan. Your brothers are going to try and stop the Kraang from 'doing' whatever fake plan they've come up with, and when they do we'll present you and the clone at the same time. They'll have to decide which one is real, and the other will die. You will die, Leonardo. Today. They will not know that it is you, and when you die and we reveal their mistake they will fall apart. The once mighty turtles will be so grief-stricken that they will be easily struck down! Oh, the irony is wonderful!" he cackled darkly.

I wanted to scream, and I'm pretty sure I visibly paled. This was horrible, awful, and I could do nothing to stop it. I was too weak. I could only pray that my brothers would realize what had happened and would _not _come looking for me. The sacrifice I had made so long ago couldn't be in vain, they had to survive and be safe.

Suddenly, I saw the shadows again, and as I saw them, Dogpound looked up and yelled, "The turtles! Get them!"

A feeling of terror like I had never felt before flowed through me, and I whipped my head up to stare at the skylight. The surprised and confused faces of Mikey and Raph looked down on me from above. Pure happiness settled over me for a second as I realized they were still 16, and it hadn't been ten years. However, it was replaced just as quickly by the mind numbing terror.

"Raph! Mikey! Get out of here! Get out of here, and don't come back! GO!" I screamed, hoping with everything in me that they would be okay.

They had to be okay. The Foot ninja fled the room following my fleeing brothers, and the Shredder looked down at me. He roughly cupped my chin in his deadly gauntlet and forced my head up to look at him.

"It has begun, Leonardo," he whispered darkly.

With that, he dropped my head as if it had burned him and left the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts. My heart pounded, and I wished with everything in me for them to be okay. My family had to be okay.


End file.
